Anything But Ordinary
by Kotei-Heika
Summary: L was approached by an ordinary looking girl who was proving not so ordinary, to save him; the key to solve the Kira case was her and he knew it. She was merely a tool but why did she intrigue him so much? Maybe she was not so ordinary, after all..? L/Mai
1. Chapter 1

AN.: Dr. Temperance Brennan is one of the lead characters in the American T.V. series called _**Bones**_.

Taniyama Mai-18

L- 24

Happy Reading! ^^v

**Chapter 1:**

L was in a bind and he knew it.

He knew— more than he let on— that Yagami Light was Kira. He could bet his entire fortune on it and he knew he'd win it all. The only problem was… how does he prove it? He knew that now his days were numbered and he was about to die any day soon now that it seemed Kira was back. He could practically sense it. Although he was confident his successors would be able to finish the case for him, he still wished there was a way he could stay alive to see justice prevail…

"L."

The English detective glanced over at his intercom unit with a bit of annoyance on his brow as he sat in the dark of his office before reaching over for the button and answering the voice on the other line. "What is it, Watari? I thought I said I was not to be disturbed?"

"There's a young woman here claiming she wants to meet you."

L blinked. Why would anyone want to meet with him? And a young woman no less. And how in the world did she know this was where she could find him? He knew Watari was thinking the exact same thing so he didn't really need to ask the older man why he was bothering him about it. His whereabouts were always kept a secret from the general public so, although the detective L had a lot of fans all across the world, they didn't really bother him.

"Can't you just tell her you're me and get whatever information she has; you know the drill, Watari." He asked with a frown, confused as to why he older man was not being as efficient as he usually was.

"I did. For some reason, the young woman refuses to believe I am you," at this, L's brows rose up into his hairline. "L, she acts as if she _knows_ you and how you look like."

"…What does she want?" he leaned forward from his comfy spot on the swivel chair he was using, a brow arched up as he did so; curious and intrigued despite himself and momentarily forgetting about the Kira case.

"She says that she has a message for you from Miss… Naomi Misora."

At the name, the world famous detective stood up from his chair with his eyes wide with excitement. He had wanted to work with the wonderfully brilliant Miss Misora again after having her on his team for the Los Angeles BB Murder cases a few years ago and she has proved herself to be an able thinker and a brilliant logician. He had wanted to get in contact with her again but people told him that she had been missing since Raye Penber, her fiancé's death in the hands of Kira. Deep inside he had considered her also killed off by Kira but couldn't say it out loud since they couldn't find a connection between her and the mysterious murdering vigilante.

If the girl outside was not Miss Misora then… who was she…?

"Send her in, Watari, and make sure no one from the team sees her, not even the surveillance cameras," He ordered. "Take her to my personal quarters."

"Very well." Was the old man's answer.

L stood up and went out into the room where Matsuda and Aizawa were still in; poring over files for what must have been the thousandth time since the investigation started.

"I'll be in my room," he told them off tersely when they looked up at his entrance. "Tell anyone besides Watari that I am not to be disturbed, you got that?"

"But—" but L ignored whatever Matsuda was about to say and closed the door behind him when he walked out.

All the two policemen could was stare at each other, puzzled by the famous detective's eccentricities as always before shrugging their shoulders. They were beginning to get used to it.

When L got back into the room he was surprised at the scene that met him.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting when he got back into his room; perhaps, in his mind he had pictured a woman who would resemble Miss Misora or perhaps a professional trafficking in information and discreet communications delivery. But what he found in his semi dark room was a girl. A young woman to be more accurate. She was wearing a high school uniform he could not identify so he mentally concluded she was not from near the area of their headquarters. Currently she was looking out of his large windows probably admiring the view of the city at night from this high up the building with all it's lights and dark splendor.

Walking quietly he observed the dark fall of her mahogany brown hair that reached a little past her shoulder blades and her light, slender build. He was pretty sure the top of her head reached his chin; if he stood up straight, that is. Without thinking it over he walked closer to her, his bare feet making no sound on the carpeted floor.

Now, logically, if a person looking out of a glass window was being approached from behind no matter how engrossed they were with the view outside, they would notice the other person behind them by their reflection on the glass. But as he stood behind the young woman she didn't even flinch. L took this as an opportunity to observe her.

She was a slender little thing. Big brown eyes from what he can see through the glass, small pert nose and small lips tinged with pink. She was plain and ordinary looking; certainly a far cry from Amane Misa; but her eyes glowed with a distinct sadness; a weariness too profound for one so young. L frowned at this. Somehow, this expression on her face was something he instantly hated so he, without thinking, he spoke.

"You said you wanted to see me?"

"EEEP!" she shrieked and jumped before turning to face him with eyes wide with fright and a hand to her chest as though to contain her beating heart.

As soon as she faced him L stared at the girl, speechless for a moment as their eyes met.

Her eyes that he thought were dull looking through the transparent glass were of a glowing cinnamon color under the dim light of his room and her skin seemed to glow despite the paleness on her face and there was a fierce light in her eyes now that had replaced the earlier gloom he had seen in them earlier. And he decided that he liked this expression on her face much, much better.

"What were you _thinking_?" she shrieked at him allowing him to collect himself. A blush was now rushing into her face fascinating him even further. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

He blinked back at her but did not move a muscle and continued to stare at her so intensely he was unknowingly trapping her between himself and the glass. He wanted to figure out what that _something_ was and explain it to himself. He was just curious that way. As he did so the well known detective caught the scent of dew fresh lavender from her and couldn't help but inhaling.

"You smell… nice." He commented in all honesty before moving closer to her neck, sniffing.

The young woman blinked at him rapidly, confused by his words before his actions caught up to her and anger replaced her confusion. "Do you _mind_?"

L was surprised when his face was pushed away on the cheek by a small hand and in a few moments, found himself sitting flat down on the floor holding onto said cheek and looking wide eyed up at the girl who was glaring down at him with her hands over her hips.

"That hurt." He commented almost nonchalantly.

Her glare became even more intense. "Serves you right, pervert!"

"I just said you smelled nice."

"You were almost licking my neck!"

"I wanted to know if you tasted nice too." He pouted.

Her face blazed over. "And what part of that did _not_ scream pervert to you?"

L proceeded to move onto his infamous thinking pose and observed the young woman from there. Assessing her current age as she was then before him he would put her between 18 or 17 years of age. "You look much better now."

She stopped and stared at him, bewildered. "I'm sorry?"

"For a minute there, I thought you were going to cry." He replied with his usual childlike candor and it made her gape at him for few moments.

When she came to she surprised him with her response. "Well… thanks… I guess…"

L didn't know why he was so pleased but he was. And though he knew she was probably of Matsuda's intellectual level, he can't find it in himself to disdain her. "That aside, I heard you wanted to speak with L. What is your business with him? If you want, I can let him know."

At that she raised a dark brow at him and blinked before she sighed and, in almost an instant, the confusion in her eyes turned weary. "Yeah, I've got a message for you."

L blinked back at her and allowed a pause to come between them before he spoke again. "I'm sorry?"

She didn't seem to notice and took a piece of paper from her schoolbag before crouching down in front of him modestly and placed it on the floor in front of him, her face now somber. "I'm here to pass on a message from Misora Naomi-san."

L was on pins and needles wanting her to tell him about everything she knew at once and for that he was completely and utterly still. "Where is she? When can L see her?"

"Well…" the girl paused to suck a huge breath in as though praying for strength before continuing."She says that you will be able to find her body in pieces as she allowed herself to be eaten by the compactor and incinerator at the local city garbage dump. Some of her has not been picked off by the birds yet so there should still be enough of her bones to bury."

L's brows shot up his hairline at the words in surprise but she merely continued and all he could do was stare this mere high school girl who had all of a sudden transformed from ordinary… to something else entirely.

"She says that even if you may not be able to get every little piece of her remains, she still wanted at least a piece of her to be found and buried beside a Mr. Raye Penber. She also says she is sorry. She came here from America to help you in your investigation to avenge him but she was discovered by Kira and killed." Here she shivered and it was difficult even for him to determine whether it was because of Kira's name or the death she was describing almost casually but then the dark haired detective distinctly noticed the way her lower lip trembled as she relayed the message and incident noting how disturbed she was about what she was currently relaying despite her somber tone. "If you have contacts that can dig the site for you please do so. This piece of paper here is a map and it will show you where she is if you're not sure where to look."

The silence that enveloped the room was as tangible as a heavy drape surrounding them. L waited to see if she'll elaborate on the information she just gave him as most other people would do but she just sat there with her wide cinnamon colored eyes that held not even a single amount of malice and waited for him to speak and acknowledge what she just said.

Now it was a part of L's innate talent to act like a human lie detector machine. Narrowing his eyes at the girl he saw not one single spec of a lie from her. She was uncomfortable but honest. Anxious but truthful. Determined yet weary. And he wondered why she bothered coming here when it was obvious she didn't want to.

It was a while before he could speak evenly again. "So you are telling me that Naomi Misora is dead, how she dies and where to find her?"

"That's the gist of it." She sighed tiredly.

"And pray tell how did you come by this information?"

"…She told me."

"You just said she was dead."

"I did."

"So how could she possibly tell you about that?"

"Because she's a persistent pest." The girl returned dryly.

"…But she's _dead_." L couldn't stop the confusion from filtering into his voice.

"Look, it's not something you need to understand," she sighed standing up again and L could clearly see how tired she was at that point. Was she that stressed from school work that she should have such deep hollows under eyes like him? Did she also dabble in sleepless nights. "I've already told you what I need to tell you and it's up to you to make things better now. I'll be going now. It was nice to meet you, L-san., and I am sorry for you loss."

At that L's eyes widened into the size of platters and, as she turned to walk away he found himself holding her back by catching her slender wrist and turning her towards him and again the girl's eyes widened in surprise at his sudden close proximity but L was beyond noticing this. There was one thing he wanted to know.

"What did you call me?"

The girl blinked up at him in confusion before responding quietly. "L…-san…"

"…How are you? What if I was _not_ L?"

Cinnamon brown eyes blinked up at him once more. "I wouldn't have given you this information if I wasn't sure you were L. I wouldn't want to end up like Misora-san, after all."

L froze at that and loosened his grip on her wrist as he continued to stare down at her.

_Did this mean that he was right? That Kira took her out? That Misora held the key to the missing link that would allow him to prove his theory?_

The girl took this as an opportunity to retrieve her wrist and walk towards the door again.

"Wait." His voice stopped her as she began to turn her doorknob. "What's your name?"

She looked back at him over her shoulder and gave him a small, warm smile that shone through her eyes before replying. "I'm Mai. Taniyama Mai."

And then she left, Watari standing outside the door and bowing politely to her as she passed him by. A nod from L made the old man follow the girl to do background checks on her and verify the information. By the end of the next day he would have all the information he wanted about Tanimaya Mai, of that he had no doubt. And with that he could unravel her mystery.

Such as how she knew who he was.

In the meantime…

L picked up the map she left behind and frowned at it. The location of the body was pretty specific and she even circled off the entire areas where he thought he would find the remains. His brows rose at the wide circle that indicated Naomi Misora's body would have had to be in pieces if it covered that much ground. That or the former FBI agent was stretched out and grew to be as large as a mountain.

Walking over to his celphone he gingerly dialed the number of a friend of his who had nothing to do with the Kira case but would be able to keep this a secret and do him a _large_ favor in return.

The phone rang three times before a brisk, feminine voice picked up. "Brennan here."

L smiled. She would never change. "Hey, Dr. Brennan, this is L."

"L!" she answered him, her voice surprised and pleased. "I haven't heard from you in a while, this is a surprise. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I didn't have any interesting bones for you to study in a while." He said with a shrug.

"And now you do?" she sounded amused.

"As a matter of fact, yes," L smirked a bit. "I need you to find and identify a body for me. Are you busy on a site right now?"

"No, I'm currently working with the FBI identifying murder victims here in Washington, DC, why?"

"So you're fine coming all the way to Japan for a while?"

"L, what's going on?" he had her attention now and L nearly smiled at the thought of how this little mystery would probably drive her crazy until he told her what she wanted to know.

"I've got a favor to ask from the world's leading Forensic Anthropologist." He told her. "I'll send my personal plane to take you here. I would prefer it if this was kept as low profile as possible."

"Of course, that would be logical since you're currently working on the Kira case right now, am I right?"

"Then I will personally greet you when you arrive. Good night, Temperance."

"See you soon, L."

As soon as they dropped the call L walked over to his window and stared at the beautiful skyline so very different and yet the same as any other skyline he had viewed in his entire life. However his mind was as far from the view as it can possibly be. This girl; this Taniyama Mai… if she was right then he would have to involve her in the Kira case as a vital source of information. No one, _no one_ knew what happened to Misora Naomi. Not even his impressive intelligence network have been able to give him the information he needed when he tried to find her and he had known she had already been killed by Kira deep down. Hell, he didn't even know she left for Japan when she did. How in the world did she come across Kira before he even had a chance to talk to her? So how did that girl, Taniyama Mai know? And how in the world did she recognize his face and know his name?

And what was up with the sadness in her eyes and the trembling of her lip as though she were trying (and failing) not to relive what she knew?

L shook his head at that and scowled.

It didn't matter, he would know in a few hours. Dr. Temperance Brennan was the best in the world of Forensic Anthropology. As soon as they found the body and she confirmed the identity of the remains, he would be sniffing after that girl again. In the meantime; he will wait.

He sat down, his knees below his chin as he bit on the tip of his thumb in front of his window and stayed there until Watari came in to tell him Dr. Brennan had arrived.

/****/

"What more do you want from me? Please let me go."

L stared at the confused and annoyed mahogany haired girl sitting on one of his lushly decorated chairs as she fidgeted under his unblinking stare. He had known a long time ago, and had been told more than once, that it was rude to stare but he couldn't help it. It helped him think.

He had asked Watari to fetch the girl for him as soon as Dr. Brennan sent him all the files he needed in a neat little folder. It still baffled him that he, the greatest detective in the world failed in what this simple, ordinary looking girl accomplished so easily.

He had read her file. Taniyama Mai was an ordinary student and, though smart and hard working enough to get some scholarships to enter a college she was by no means academically exceptional. She was not as beautiful as Amane Misa by any stretch of the imagination and she wasn't even of a good family. In fact, from what he and Watari discovered, she was an orphan, just like him and everyone at Wammy's House. She had a bunch of odd jobs she did to help support herself since she refused adoption since she was orphaned. The only remarkable thing about her was that she once worked part time for a good and old friend of his… He would have to call him later about this girl.

"L-san?" she called his attention again, growing irritated by the fact that he didn't seem to hear her. "I _said_ I want to go home!"

At that L knew he could not afford to alienate her even more if he wanted her help. So he pushed the folder Dr. Brennan left with him before she went back to the United States as quickly as she came, towards the high school girl who stared at the folder then at him in confusion.

"What is this?" she asked, clueless, brows furrowed.

On second thought she wasn't really that plain, L thought privately as he pushed his thumb against his lower lip, never taking his unblinking eyes away from her face. She had a strange glow around her… a warmth that did not exist around other people no matter how beautiful or brilliant like Misa or even Light. "This is the DNA findings we found in the site you gave us. The remains are a perfect match to Naomi Misora."

At this she calmed down and a look of relief rushed through her so strong that she had to close her eyes for a moment. He observed the way she swallowed several times and how she blinked rapidly before speaking again in a hoarse voice. "Thank Kami… Now she can rest in peace. What happened to her… The person who did that to her was not human at all!"

"You speak as though you knew exactly what happened to her, Taniyama-san," L remarked, still observing her every move, fascinated by every emotion that crossed her face. He was usually around people who guarded their expressions and emotions very well so seeing someone so open was very… intriguing to him. Which was strange since he usually found such people a huge bore. "Almost as though you were there the moment she was killed."

"Well…" she fidgeted uncomfortably, lending credence to his theory about her presence in the crime scene.

"Also, the forensics expert I sent from America told me that Miss Misori killed herself. There were no signs of a struggle on her part and she was crushed while she was still alive. She said Miss Misori lay inside that metal crusher _willingly_, which I find very hard to believe." L watched her blanch and turn as pale as paper. She bit her lower lip hard and he could see her entire frame shaking violently. "The scientists conclude it was suicide. It coincides with the suicide note found in her hotel room when we tried to look for her. And yet you say she was killed. You imply that she was murdered. How can you possibly know that?"

"I just know, okay?" she muttered as she clenched and unclenched her fists on her lap, a gesture he did not miss. "Can't you just let it go? Or, better yet, let _me_ go? I've got a job waiting for me!"

"I can't," he told her tersely. "You may now be a part of a most crucial investigation—"

"_I don't want to get involved in it_!" she burst out, staring him straight in the eye, her cinnamon eyes turning a shade lighter in their fierceness. "You can catch Kira yourself! You're L, for the love of Kami!"

"Ah, so you _do_ know about the investigation."

"_Everyone_ in Japan knows about it," she replied almost bitterly. "Anyone who doesn't must have been living under a _rock_."

"And yet _you_ know the details of a murder everyone thinks was a suicide. Do you not find that strange? Because _I_ do."

"Naomi-san merely told me that Kira killed her; the investigation, as you know, has been made public," she told him in helpless exasperation. "For crap's sake it's all over the _internet_! They have an online game, for crying out loud!"

"And yet no one knew who I was or what I looked like. My identity is exclusive only within the team I work with and them alone. They are under obligation to keep my identity a secret for the sake of the investigation and having any sort of information leaked out is a major threat that we would have no problem disposing of. The fact that you have seen my face alone makes you a threat to this investigation, Taniyama-san; and the fact that you knew Watari was not L came with a shock," he loomed over her as he saw her face get even more helplessly exasperated. "So why don't you tell me what I want to know before I charge you with obstruction of justice and an accessory to murder? Believe me, Taniyama-san, I can make your life easier, or make you live through a living hell."

"You _wouldn't_—"

"Watch me."

"You have no right—"

"I beg to differ."

"How dare you—"

"One thing you should know about me, Taniyama-san," he looked down at her mercilessly. "I would do _anything_ for a case. _Anything_."

She glared at him and L stared right back at her calmly for several minutes in a veritable war of wills that amused L no end. Did she think she could win against him? Not even Near could win against him in a staring contest. Mello even had to _cheat_.

She caved and looked away after several minutes, her arms coming to cover her chest defensively, a rebellious pout on her tulip pink lips. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

L smirked in triumph, oddly feeling like he had just won the Olympics. It was odd and he would explore that later but for now, he pursued with his interrogation of her. "First of all, how do you know Naomi Misora?"

"I didn't."

L blinked slowly, unconvinced. This girl truly was a mystery all and of itself and it was beginning to fascinate him as much as the Kira case. "Then how do you know all the vital information about her?"

"She told me about them. I told you that already."

"How?"

She hesitated for a moment, fidgeted and he warned her with a glance that had her sighing wearily. "In a dream."

L frowned. "You _dreamed_ about her?"

She sighed again at that and leaned back into her chair. "You would never believe me if I told you everything."

"Try me."

Mai scowled at him and started. "Fine, you want the truth? I'll give you the truth." She leaned forward and looked him directly in the eye. "I'm psychic."

Again L stared at her intensely. And again he blinked slowly. His voice was tirn between humor and disbelief. "Pardon me?"

She scowled at him. Clearly she didn't miss his tone. "That's right, I'm psychic. As in woohoo, I-See-Dead-People-In-My-_Sleep_-Psychic. To put it all in fancy little words, I have ESP. I can see the past and the future in my _dreams_. I astral project, I talk to dead spirits while I'm asleep even though I wish I _couldn't_; and yeah, recently I learned how to control my own shikigami and exorcise _spirits_! And of course, sure, you can take a picture!"

L frowned, considering this. He computed the possibility of her lying to be a mere 0.000001% since he calculated in the instances of schizophrenia and mental disability likely but then… records of medication would have been on file, right? But Watari basically found her to be a cheerful and sociable young woman with various circle of friends. Her academic achievements were nothing special and she did no display any sort of arrogance nor need to overachieve in anyway. In short, her profile was the direct opposite of Light's.

"Tell me more…" he told her again a few moments of tense silence. "About the dreams you had of Miss Misora that led you into finding her body."

She looked like he had just struck her with the way her skin turned all ashen and her eyes went all haunted. "Please don't make me…!"

L hardened his stare at her, willing her to obey him. "I _want_ to hear it."

She scowled angrily at him before snapping. "_Fine_! The reason I found out about Naomi-san was—you guessed it— in a dream. Because, at that time, I was assigned by my boss to do a delivery in that particular part of town and since then her spirit attached to me and put me in a position where I had to be _her_ for several nights until I got a damned _clue_.

"_I_ was in her body the whole time it happened; _I_ was the one who wrote the damned suicide note; _I_ was the one who walked into the garbage disposal unit; _I_ was the one who lay there helplessly as the walls of that crusher closed in around me and _I_ felt it when the system put her through the incinerator and _burned every last piece of me_!" Mai was breathing hard now and tears came pouring out of her as though a dam had been broken inside her as she relived the story for him.

L watched her closely and wondered if she knew that she was already out of her seat and standing right in front of him looking directly in his eye so closely he could feel her breath on his chin. She was shaking; every part of her was trembling in an intense fashion and as her words sank in, a slight furrow formed on his brow. The look on her face made him feel a twinge deep inside that felt spectacularly close to guilt but brushed it aside and allowed his mind to go back to the case.

If what she said was true then… she had relieved the way Naomi Misori died. He wondered how long she had kept this story bottled up inside her. She took several more deep breaths, sobbing out at each one until she managed to calm herself enough to be able to sit down because her knees were almost about to give up on her and she had to depend on some sort of support. She buried her face in her hands, seemingly ashamed that she had managed to cry in front of a complete stranger, confirming to L that she was an orphan; for this reflexive, psychological mannerism and the need to be strong as a self preservation mechanism was common amongst youngsters who felt alone and could trust no one. He understood it quite well.

When she spoke again, she was calmer and sniffled a little less and he had to admire her for the way she was attempting to pull herself together for his benefit. "A month after I had the nightmares I stayed at a shrine to meditate and finally… I was able to make contact with her on the astral plane. I managed to use astral projection in my sleep with her acting as my spirit guide and she showed me where her corpse lay. That was when she told me that she wanted to be buried beside her dead fiancé and be with him in the afterlife. She sent me to inform you personally because she doesn't want the information to be handed over to Kira on a silver platter. She was the one who led me to this building and before we even physically met, I already knew what you looked like because I was here the night you guys were monitoring Amane Misa's infiltration of the Yotsuba Group so I already knew if someone was lying to me or not about anyone being L. She made me see your _face_. I also know about the shinigami; I saw it standing beside that guy you were calling Yagami-kun. Aside from what happened—"

"You _saw_ the shinigami?" L knelt before her on one knee and thrust his face close to hers in a way that had her leaning away from him.

His dark eyes were wide and so full of almost manic urgency that Mai couldn't deny him what he wanted to know. "Y-yeah… It scowled a lot and was entirely white. Pretty scary. Looked like a demon, really."

"So they _can_ be seen by a person who hasn't been able to touch the notebook at all!" L jumped to his feet, excitedly pacing. He was so pumped up he was practically _shaking_.

"Anno… L-san…?" Mai began a bit uncertainly, wondering if the weird young man had finally lost it.

L turned back to her then, that flame still ignited in his charcoal black eyes. This was it. The break he was looking for! _She_ was the key! "And does it know about you?"

Mai shook her head. "I don't think so, they probably just took me for another stray spirit floating around. They are supernatural, after all."

"Will you be able to astral project again?"

"W-what?" Mai stared at the detective with wide eyes.

L slipped on his knee back down in front of her one more time and this time held her arms so tightly that she almost winced at the pain. "_Tell me_!"

"Uh… yeah, I've been taking lessons from a friend's shrine up in Mt. Kouya…"

"_Perfect_!" L grinned, eyes still trained on her. "Then you are just what I need to give me more time."

"Eh?" Mai did not like where this was all starting to lead.

At all.

"Taniyama Mai," L stood up and looked down at her in excitement. "Welcome to the Kira investigation."

She gaped at him like he was crazy. "N-NANI?"

/***********/


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

It was official.

Someone up there really _did_ hate her.

Why?

Well Mai would assume she did something very, very wrong a long, long time ago in a past life to a very, very pissed off god and said god was now making her pay the price for it. Whoever it was though, she wanted to meet him. Just so she could tell them she hated them back. And maybe kick them in the shin. Where it would hurt. Yeah.

As satisfying as that thought was, though, she had to keep her face expressionless as she rushed to work from school; wanting nothing more than to get into her uniform for the Quickie Mart where she was working part time in since the beginning of the school year. It would be nice to get involved in something already familiar and forget all about the stupid, panda eyed idiot who thought he could bully her into getting involved in something she wanted no part of! That stupid idiot L argued with her all night long about her joining the investigation and she was seriously angry with him for it. How dare that jerk; who did he think he was keeping her up all night long she almost never made it to school? He was acting just like…

"Don't go there, Mai," she muttered to herself as she ran through the heavy rainstorm that night. "Don't even think about it."

It's been 2 years since he left. If he wanted to come back, wouldn't he have been here by now? What exactly _was_ she waiting for? Waiting for a dream that would never come true? This was Naru; world famous Dr. Oliver Davis. Someone like him would not be without other people like her wanting him to be with them. Someone like him wouldn't have a problem about being alone. Someone like him wouldn't have a problem _being_ alone so waiting would an exercise in futility…

Mai side stepped a car that was about to give her an impromptu mud bath and inwardly blessed the fact that she did not fail to bring her umbrella with her. At least that damned panda bear didn't have her seething so much that she got distracted to the point of ruining her daily routine!

"Hey, Mai!"

"Oh hey, Haru-chan!" Mai greeted her enthusiastic co-worker as she stepped into the employee's locker room. "Horrible rainstorm, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it was!" she nodded to her. "Did you hear the news?"

"Which one?"

"I just passed by the boss' office and heard the television on and they said the killings are still going on; people are saying that the guy the police arrested a few nights ago wasn't really Kira!"

Mai stopped at that as she changed into her red Quickie Mart shirt. A sudden rush of dread suddenly crawled up her spine like a bad chill. Experience told hr not to second guess it since she was always almost right. Something bad was going to happen…

"Taniyama-san," they both turned to see their boss, Mrs. Inuzuka call for her from the door and smiled at the mahogany haired girl. "That tall friend of yours is here asking for you again."

Mai sighed. It was just like Bou-san to show up now. "Thank you, Inuzuka-san, I'll be right there, sorry about this."

"It's fine, sweetie, you're always early for work and put in extra hours when you can, I really appreciate it."

Mai blushed at the teasing nudge she got from Haru as well. As soon as she had her clothes on she went out and greeted Bou-san at the back of the store, he was wearing a burnt orange slicker over a black shirt with the words 'Jesus Christ is in Heaven' in white grungy letters at the front. She chuckled internally at the thought of John reading off the words and wondering what he would say.

"Hey, Bou-san!"

"Jouchan!" he greeted her with his usual big bright smile and it did a considerable job in lightening her mood. "How're you doing?"

Mai almost sighed. "I told you, I'm fine, Bou-san, you don't need to come here and check up on me so much."

He raised a brow at her because of this. "Whether you want me to or not it's not like I can help worrying about you. You've been so pale these past few months and I don't care what Ayako says. I only see you that restless when we're in a case with…"

They both fell silent. Naru's name had been taboo for a while now with their group.

"I'm fine now," Mai answered happily after a while. "It's true I've been struggling with something this past month but it's already stopped. I've fixed it so there is nothing you should worry about now."

The monk narrowed his eyes at her. "What was it about?"

Mai sighed knowing she wasn't going to get out of this now. Besides, now that it's over it shouldn't be a burden on him anymore, right? "It was about one of the missing FBI agents who were supposed to have been involved in the Kira case."

"Wha—? Mai!" Houshou's eyes were wide as saucers before he hissed at her. "That was dangerous! You know it's not safe to be involved with anything that murdered does!"

"Of course I know what do you think of me?" Mai hissed back irritably. "She was just asking to be buried next her fiancé and to tell L to do that for her since I can't very well be seen digging around a landfill like a crazy person!"

"You met _L_?" If Houshou's eyes were wide before, it was nothing compared to what they looked like now. In a blink of an eye, Mai found her shoulders clenched in the monk's large hands. "When? How? What did he look like? _Why didn't you take me with you_?"

Mai sweatdropped. "Bou-san… don't tell me you're an L fan too…?"

Houshou blushed and let go of her, coughing into his palm after a while. "Well, umm… you see…"

The high school senior laughed and gave him a large hug. "You're so cute, Bou-san!"

"Hey, cut it out," he grumbled, pouting at her. "Anyway, you saw him, right? What did he tell you?"

"He wanted me to join in on the investigation."

The sandy blond bass player turned to her with wide eyes again at her casual answer. "Really?"

Mai rolled her eyes at him and let go. "I refused, of course; I don't want to get involved in that little mess."

Houshou cocked a brow at her. "That bad, huh?"

"There are _shinigami_ involved, Bou-san," she cried out in exasperation. "You and I know better than to mess around with that crowd!"

Houshou paled at the word. "Shinigami? Are you sure?"

Mai nodded up at him.

The monk's brows furrowed. "So does that mean Kira's got a shinigami at his disposal?"

Mai blinked. "I'm not sure. I just know that I saw a couple of them loitering in that huge building in the middle of town where L was staying several nights in a row after the spirit revealed itself to me a few weeks back. I saw a white one and black one, both completely creepy looking."

"But why?" Houshou was confused as he placed his fingers on his chin thoughtfully. "Does this mean Kira has a shinigami at his disposal?"

"I didn't even know you can employ a shinigami," Mai told him with a shudder. "I mean, with what we do we can curse someone to death but to have an actual shinigami work for you… It just makes the hair on my arms stand on end…"

"Not to mention it's not natural at all, there must be something holding that shinigami down here for him to stay close to Kira." Houshou frowned.

"Well as long as I'm not part of that investigation, I can't see why I should get involved." Mai announced stubbornly.

"Right, the way you didn't get involved in the first place when you started having those dreams and never told us about them." The monk deadpanned.

"Come on, Bou-saannn!"

The monk narrowed her eyes at her in mild irritation before sighing. "I really hate it when you do this."

Mai blinked up at him innocently. "Do what?"

"_This_!" he hissed before he sighed again and patted her on the head affectionately, his eyes holding concern. "You always try so hard to fix things by yourself and… it hurts, you know? It hurts that we mean so little to you that you won't even confide in us. Sometimes we think Naru's actually broken you somehow after— I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Mai shook her head, trying to swallow the traces of her heartbreak. "Bou-san, you guys are the only family I have and I don't think there's a way for me to express just how much you guys mean to me. You've been there for me when no one else would. You understand me! You make me feel so… lucky."

"What do we have to do to show you we want to help you, Mai?" he asked almost sadly even as his voice was laced with his evident frustration. They both knew it was an old argument between them and they just didn't know how to stop. "Hell, you know John and shounen will do anything for you."

Her smile trembled slightly at that. "I just don't want to be a burden, that's all."

"Even so we want to be there for you; even if it's just to listen to you whine; you get me?"

Mai smiled warmly up at him before throwing her arms around his neck in a hug and making him stumble backwards. "I love you, Bou-saaannn!"

"Whoa, you're getting heavy, Mai!"

"Baka!"

_Kick_.

"_Ow_! My shin! Why you little brat—"

Mai was laughing so hard that she let go of him as he hopped comically around holding his injured limb. She knew for a fact that she didn't kick him _that_ hard. When she laughed, the former monk straightened and grinned at her, happy to see her smiling. Mai moved to say something else when she stumbled.

"Mai?" Houshou blinked and he automatically stepped forward to catch her.

"Huh?" Mai shook her head to clear it. It felt like it was swimming for some reason. "I'm fine…"

"You sure?"

But just then, a lone tear streaked down her left cheek and Mai gasped as the dread she was fearing from earlier took form in her consciousness and advised her of its source. "No..."

"Mai?"

"L-san..." she barely finished the word when she dropped fully into Houshou's arms in a dead faint.

"_Mai_!" Houshou went into a dead panic wondering what was going on. Pulling out a celphone, he immediately called Ayako.

And so that was when everything went to hell in a hand basket during one of the biggest rainstorms that year…

/****/

"Where am I...?"

L looked around at the vast space of darkness around him; it felt like he was in a huge planetarium and he was surrounded by a multitude of bright, floating stars in that vast space of seemingly empty darkness.

It was quiet. Too quiet.

"Watari?"

Nothing.

"Watari?"

Still nothing.

He stepped forward to take a closer peek at the glittering stars around him and realized they weren't stars but orbs. L had always been fascinated with shimmering objects even when he was a child. Even as he stared out his window back at the orphanage he had always dreamed of reaching out and touching them. He had always felt an attraction for anything unique because he was, in itself; unique perhaps, he wasn't really sure. So, intrigued he reached out to touch them; but before he could the little things floated away from him like frightened little children. He frowned in disappointment at this.

"What's going on here?"

Surprised, the detective turned around and his eyes widened at the sight of a glowing Taniyama Mai floating right in front of him; slowly solidifying until she was as clear to him as the day he met her. It was incredible to him that she seemed to materialize straight out from the darkness. Currently she was staring at him in horrified, speechless disbelief.

Mai, in return, gawked back at him in silent stupefaction.

"Taniyama-san," L nodded at her politely for lack of a better way to express his surprise at her appearance. "How interesting, I was not expecting you here."

His words must have knocked some sense into her because, as though he had flipped a switch on her brain, she went from horrified speechlessness to banshee angry. "You're dead!"

L blinked at that but his face remained expressionless. He answered in his usual way. By saying the first thing that came to his mind. "I find myself somehow offended by that observation."

"But _how_? How can that be?" she cried out hysterically before swinging an arm around her and to L's ever widening eyes, the black universe filled with orbs exploded into a world of pictures. It was as though the plane was obeying the wave of her hand.

It all played out like a film all around him as though he were standing in a room with its ceiling, floor and walls made solely out of monitors. Of the Kira case and his meeting with Yagami Light. The interrogation and the way he developed a friendship with his prime suspect. The rain, his meeting with Taniyama Mai, her information... and finally the scene of his death... Where he stared into the ruthless eyes of Yagami Light and he remembered the sadness and regret that consumed him as he slowly closed his eyes...

And the first thing that entered L's brain as everything was revealed to him was; 'Oh yeah; I'm dead.'

As soon as he fell from his chair in the central meeting room, the dark haired young man averted his face away, not wanting to see anything more. However, the only other place where he can lay his eyes on would be… her.

Without even being conscious about it, the young genius watched every emotion pass through Taniyama Mai's face. From surprise to fury, to realization, to shock and finally sadness… He almost snorted. She was an open book; too trusting and ordinary and such, it would be the death of her one day. Just like those other poor souls who ended up being the victims of the brutality around them. She looked so heartbreakingly innocent and he couldn't stand it. L knew just how fragile the innocent could be; it was the prime reason why he distanced himself away from them and preferred isolation; the reason why he never trusted anybody else aside from himself, Watari and Light. The reason why he sought justice. Plus, they were often boring…!

But as he stared at Taniyama Mai as she watched the last moments of his life he saw how she glowed like something anything _but_ ordinary while understanding glowed like a lamp in her bright cinnamon eyes. And then a tear streaked down softly to land on her feet, shimmering like a broken piece of glass and making the whole space they were in move like that of a broken surface of a lake.

He was further surprised when the orbs of light that had run away from him earlier floated towards her out of nowhere and surrounded Taniyama Mai's now glowing form as though all of them wanted to comfort her. That glow really _did_ make her look something… other than human… Not a ghost, the light around her felt too _alive_ for it to belong to the dead. It was something much more… indescribable than that…

"No…" he heard her whisper before she turned back to him, her eyes filled with outraged despair. "This can't be happening; you shouldn't have to die like this!"

He was taken aback by this vehement statement; however the best reaction he could give her was a slow blink. "But I'm dead now, there's no helping it. Light beat me at my own game."

"No, I won't let this happen! If only I agreed to help you, you wouldn't have had to…" her voice broke as though she couldn't bear to continue and then shocked him further by reaching for his hand and pulling him toward her. "Besides, something inside me is telling me it was not supposed to be your time yet! Come on!"

L's eyes widened a fraction as she led him, floating across the dark space as though they both weighed nothing. "Where are we going?"

"I've never tried this before but I'm willing to risk it; if the shinigami are willing to break taboos, then so will I!" she growled back at him without looking.

The next thing L knew; he was in pain. And he wasn't breathing. Funny thing was; he was conscious that he was _not_ breathing.

With a sharp gasp, he filled his lungs with air like a diver just breaking the surface of the water. He sat up coughing his lungs out, clenching his fist over his chest while willing the pain to go away. He had never felt such pain from that part of his body before. It made him very aware of the fact that breathing was _important_ and one should not underestimate it.

Hmm… maybe he should have that filed somewhere…

"We made it…" The amazed, otherworldly voice made L look up and gape at the sight of a floating Taniyama Mai right in front of him. The look of amazement on her face gave way to relief in a matter of moments. "Thank Kami…"

L blinked twice at her with his mouth still agape before letting them wander around the dark room he realized he was now alone in besides the transparent figure of the girl. He recognized it as a part of the building at Kira headquarters; the only one without any cameras in them. It served as Watari's quarters when he needed a break and now it seemed the others have turned it into a morgue of sorts shortly after he and Watari died.

Wait, then that meant…

He looked beside him and, sure enough, halfway into a body bag lay the old man who had taken care of him since he was little; pale and oddly peaceful as he lay still and cold.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get him back for you," he heard Mai tell him; a sad note in her voice. "Getting you back here was a lot of work and I don't have enough energy left to get him back into his body even if I returned to the astral plane."

L gaped and, like an innocent child, regarded his hands as he lifted them in front of himself. He really was alive but… at what price? Silently, he steeled himself from the pain using the armor of his logic. "It's fine. When he became my partner he already knew there was a chance he could die. There's no point in saving him. How long as I dead?"

"About 15 minutes; your friends thought it would be better if they started looking for Kira now and avenge you. And— Wait a minute, how could you say that? He was your friend wasn't he?" she scolded him angrily.

"Friends betray one another," he put his hands down and stared at his feet, still in his sneakers. He wished they'd at least had the decency to take off his sneakers. Now he had confirmed that Light really was not his friend, if he were any kind of friend he would have taken off his sneakers before leaving him here. "You've seen how friendship became my downfall."

"That was because your trust was misplaced," she rebutted in irritation. "And besides, do you truly regret befriending Yagami-san?"

The question caught him like a blow to the gut at the realization. No. He did not regret befriending Yagami Light.

"Anyway, we'll talk about this later," she sighed, urgency laced her words. "Is there a way you can get out of this place without being spotted? I need you to get your friend here to a certain location so we can cover up the fact that you're still alive."

He looked up at her swiftly and was about to protest but then he stared at her translucent form and her determined face and reflexively thrust the tip of his thumb between his lips, forcing his mind to work through his grief. "That may be the most logical choice at this point."

"I'm glad you agree; I want you to disguise yourself as probably a medic or a police officer, make sure to hide your face. If they stop you from taking your friend's body then tell them you are taking him and 'yourself' to the Matsuzaki General Hospital and look for Matsuzaki Ayako-sensei. I'll be waiting for you there."

"What about the shinigami, Rem?"

"She's… gone." There was pain on her face as she looked away from him and regret colored her voice. "It was all part of Kira's plan to get her out of the picture…"

L looked back at his feet again and thought it over; it made sense if Kira thought Rem was giving out too much information about the notebook. But then why kill her? Rem wasn't much of a help at all in the interrogation. In fact, now that he thought about it, it looked as though the shinigami was covering for Light.

"We don't have a lot of time, you have to go, L-san!"

L looked up at her again, mesmerized by the glow that surrounded her and tilted his head to the side. "You… glow."

She blinked back at him, surprised. "Uh, yeah… That's what spirits do…?"

L then smiled at her goofily. "You're pretty when you glow…"

A dash of red spread across her cheeks at his comment making her much more fascinating to the detective before she yelled at him. "We don't have time for this! Get _moving_!"

L had the grace to look sheepish as he scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry. Anyway, before you go, there's just one more thing I need you to do."

She arched a brow at him at that. "And what is that?"

The genius' face then transformed into a serious one as he looked at her from underneath his shaggy bangs and spoke. "I need a piece of that notebook. Just a page; I need more information on it."

She frowned and stared at him for a few minutes before heaving a heavy sigh that had her shoulders slouching. "Fine; I'll see you at the hospital then."

He grinned at her and waved happily. "See you later, Taniyama-chan!"

She shook her head at him in exasperation before she faded before his eyes as she turned around and faded away.

"Interesting." L muttered as he stared at the spot where she was a few moments before getting up and heading for a small closet. Rummaging right through it he found the medic uniforms he and Light wore when they retrieved Matsuda's body to save him from the Yotsuba Group and nodded in satisfaction. "These will do just fine."

And then he began to change.

/****/

Mai opened her eyes to the sight of a hysterical Matsuzaki Ayako and panicked Takigawa Houshou looking down at her. She could smell the familiar scent of antiseptic that wafted through the room and instantly knew where she was.

"Mai…!" Ayako breathed out her name as though just remembering she had lungs. The sight of her opened eyes made the self proclaimed priestess seize the younger woman in a hug. "Oh, _Mai_!"

"Ayako, let her _breathe_!" Houshou exclaimed, although a large amount of his earlier tension had obviously dropped as well. "We don't need her fainting on us again."

"Shut up, stupid monk!" Ayako let go and shot the monk a glare.

"Ayako…" Mai finally managed to whisper as she gingerly tried to sit up. "I—"

"No, stay down, Mai," the doctor in the older woman took charge as she tried to get the girl to lie down again. "I'm still having my team run their tests on you, we can't figure out what's wrong."

"Her employer back at the Quickie Mart told me she's been working too hard," Houshou shot the young esper a stern look. "I told you not to overdo it."

"I didn't!" she protested.

"You were putting in extra hours, Mai!"

"What happened?" Ayako demanded. "You were out for 30 minutes I thought I was going to have you go under the shock treatment to get you back!"

"I'm fine," Mai insisted and tried to sit up again but this time, a slight crackling and the feel of something light and dry in her hand called her attention. The piece of the notebook reminded her of her next mission. "Ayako, I have a favor to ask of you!"

Ayako's perfectly plucked brows flew straight up into her hairline at this and she and Houshou shared a confused look before both their gazes looked back at her again. "What is it, Mai?"

Struggling to rise now despite Ayako's protests, she looked up at her and both the miko and monk got more worried at the determination and urgency they could read on her face. "Someone's coming here with a dead body; if the police come and ask for their records you need to confirm their deaths to them."

Ayako blinked at that. "Alright then I don't see what the problem is; I mean, that's what we do here, after all."

Mai shook her head at this. "No, Ayako, the things is, only one of them is dead."

Ayako's brows knotted at this. "What are you talking about?"

"Mai," Houshou caught the attention of both women as he stared at the girl he treated as a little sister. "Does this have anything to do with the dream that's been bothering you these past few months? The ones keeping you awake at night?"

Mai closed her eyes at the weariness of keeping all this a secret from her friends. She was just so tired… "Yes. I'll explain everything later and then you can kill me but _please_, Ayako, I need you to personally see to this; the fewer people who know the better."

A moment of silence spread through them where Ayako stared directly into her eyes and assessed Mai's sincerity and an understanding light started to glow in them. A silence that was only broken when a nurse came in and took their attention.

"Matsuzaki-sensei, someone from the police department is asking for you;" the pink haired nurse narrated. "I believe they need you to conduct an autopsy on a couple of bodies for them."

Without taking her eyes away from the younger girl's pleading ones, Ayako answered in a professional and confident voice. "Alright, I'll be there, thank you, Haruno-san."

The nurse bowed and left.

"What do I have to do, Mai?"

Mai breathed a sigh of relief before she started explaining what Ayako needed to do.

"I need you to go out there, he's the only one who asked for you specifically to call an autopsy on a dead body and you know as much as I do that that is simply not done so it'll be easy for you to find him; have them fix the body and make arrangements for it; the police will need to make sure that he is dead. The man you will talk to will also tell you about another dead body that you will not see."

"Wait a minute, why—"

"Ayako, I cannot stress _enough_ how important it is for the police be informed that these people are proclaimed legally dead." Mai cut through Ayako's questions. "People's lives depend on this. Whatever else that you need to know I promise that I'll answer you later. For now you need to go out there and face L."

Ayako's burgundy eyes widened and Houshou nearly fell over. "L? _The_ L?"

"_Please_, Ayako!"

"Fine!" the self proclaimed miko exclaimed in exasperation but Mai could see how much she was about to explode because of curiosity and she feared that the doctor would try nagging the answers out of her again. "But you owe me one, Mai, you got that?"

"I know," the younger female nodded in relief. "And I can't thank you enough."

Ayako shot her a concerned glance before exchanging a significant look with Houshou and leaving the room. Mai slumped back into her pillows and sighed in relief. She was so tired that she didn't even notice that the monk was already there until she felt a large, warm hand over her forehead.

She opened her eyes and saw the wry, worried smile on the sandy blond haired monk's lips. "What have you gotten yourself into this time, Mai?"

Mai blinked rapidly and her lips trembled as she tried to bravely smile up at him. "A lot of trouble I'm afraid."

Houshou sighed and sat beside her. "Well, you wouldn't be you if _you_ weren't in trouble."

She pouted at the words. "I resent that."

Houshou merely chuckled and sat beside her to wait for Ayako and the promised explanation from the girl on the bed.

/****/

L stared at the Watari's covered body with a blank look on his face, sitting in his usual manner whenever he was deeply contemplating a matter in his mind.

Blank faced as he may seem he truly did feel something for the death of his closest companion since he was a child and lost as an orphan. Thinking about working without him now made him feel like he was losing a limb; a separation from his right arm. It hurt. But his face never gave anything away, effectively hiding his pain; the pain brought about his logic, lost in the richness that built up his oh so brilliant mind…

"Excuse me?"

L turned blank eyes on the red headed woman in a white lab coat whose burgundy eyes seemed to hone in on him with a trace of skepticism and he nodded. "Matsuzaki Ayako-sensei?"

Warily she stopped several steps away from him. Aside from turning his face towards her, he did not move from his place and he saw the woman bristle at his rudeness but she strained to contain herself. "Yes, I am she."

L nodded towards Watari's body then. "Has Taniyama-san advised you of the situation, then?"

"Not everything," she answered, curiously peering at the body bag on the table. "She told me I needed to declare someone dead and produce the documents needed for the police to gain confirmation."

Once again, he nodded, pleased. "His name should be Quillish Wammy, English, 71 years old, birth date May 1, 1936. Last known address would be Winchester, England and if you contact his estate someone would be able to take his body and bury it on the grounds. Time of death would have been approximately… 9:26 P.M., but I assume you would be able to tell that."

Ayako couldn't help but raise her brows at all that info and gape at the baggy eyed young man. "Whoa there, wait a minute—"

"And you will also do the same for L. Lawliet, English, 25 years old, October 31, 1982. Last known address would also be Winchester, England along with Mr. Wammy. Time of death would approximately fall a few minutes after Watari died." L cut off the doctor, ignoring the widening of her eyes as she looked around for any signs of another body. "You will create autopsy reports for the both of them and advise the police that the bodies were sent back immediately to England upon request of Mr. Wammy's estate."

Ayako was flabbergasted. "What other body? Where's the other one?"

"There is none." L turned back to her again and met her eyes. "_I_ am L. Lawliet."

The doctor slash miko scowled. "You're not dead."

"That is quite obvious, yes. Is there a problem?"

"A problem?" Ayako looked back at him as though he were crazy. "Of course there's a problem! I can't call a body that's not here!"

"Matsuzaki-sensei," L then stood up and turned to face her, his shoulders in their usual slouch and his hands inside his pockets as he stared at her bluntly in the eye. The emptiness in them creeped the female doctor up grandly. "There are people who want me dead and Taniyama-san and I agreed that the best way to keep me safe is to make them think they have succeeded. So far this plan of Taniyama-san is the most logical choice so please, hurry up."

Ayako felt irritation rise up in her at the arrogance of the man in front of her. She wanted nothing more than give the bastard a good whack with her purse; the same she does for Takigawa whenever he would start acting like the idiot he was… but then she remembered Mai and how her eyes pleaded with her for this earlier. She needed to have faith. She needed to get this over with and pray she was not going to make the biggest mistake of her career.

"Okay," she sighed, rolling her sleeves back at picking up the clipboard hanging at the foot of the table where Watari's still body lay. She looked over the dead body for a while, her experience telling her when the patient died and called it. "Quillish Wammy, age 71. Time of death would be 9:25 P.M. Cause would be… heart attack. And L. Lawliet, age 25… Time of death would be 9:26 P.M. Cause of death would be…?"

L didn't bother to look back at her. "The same."

Ayako wrote it all down in the clipboard and then closed up Watari's body bag again after a respectful bow and a quick prayer to send his spirit to rest before putting the metal slate under her arm and turning back to the famous detective.

"What now, Your Highness?" she asked him sarcastically.

L merely nodded back at her, oblivious to that sarcasm. "I wish to see Taniyama-san. I believe she has something that I need to see."

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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A drenched Yasuhara Osamu rushed out of his second hand car followed by an equally dripping John Brown as soon as he parked it in the Matsuzaki General Hospital's parking lot. It was like a race and, had the university student been paying attention, he would have commented on how nimble the blond priest was. But then again, he was no different; he didn't even know how much of a sprinter he could be until he heard that Mai was in the hospital from Ayako and Housho and that she had fainted. The pair weren't really clear as to how Mai lost her consciousness but worry for her was enough to send him into a tizzy.

He was the one who had called John from the orphanage he was staying at and offered to pick up his friend since he knew John had no car. The blonde priest was quite pale when he arrived at the orphanage and aside from his worried questions the drive was spent in worried silence.

Since Ayako had already told him Mai's room number over the phone, both Osamu and John did not have to stop by the front desk for information. Heedless of the doctors, patients and nurses on their way they plowed through the other people in the hallways (John apologizing almost incoherently all the way) until they arrived at Mai's room. In their haste they opened the door without knocking, both of them panting as they leaned on each doorframe as soon as they caught a glimpse of Mai on top of the bed sheets looking out towards her closed window where she could see how the scenery beyond it was blurred by the rainstorm outside, Houshou sitting beside her and looking back at them in amused exasperation.

"You guys _do_ know this hospital has an elevator, right?" he asked both his friends as they stumbled into the room in complete exhaustion.

"For… got…" Osamu wheezed.

"Too… worried…" John panted from the floor.

"Mai…" Osamu stood up and rushed beside Mai's bed. "Are you… alright?"

"Mai-chan," John looked at her closely but she merely returned to looking back out her window. "What's wrong, Mai-chan…?"

They were startled by the weak attempt at a reassuring smile that she gave them and the distracted, guilty look on her face. It was as though she had done something terrible and she was beating herself up over it. Osamu was immediately concerned and he shot a look back at Housho who merely shook his head grimly at him meaning he shouldn't press.

He and John were exchanging silently disturbed looks. Usually Mai would be beside herself laughing them off and telling them not to worry so much by now. What was going on? Their musings were interrupted when the door opened again letting Ayako in… and a young man roughly around Housho's age wearing a paramedic's uniform with a slouched upper body and wide, baggy eyes entered the room. Ayako locked the door after he came in. The young man walked in until he was directly at the foot of Mai's bed, not even acknowledging the fact that there were other people in the room and Housho watched as the two of them stared at each other for a few moments in silence. The young man's eyes were wide but blank; as though he knew and felt nothing; while Mai's eyes were filled with more than a little pain.

Everyone except Mai was surprised at this sudden action… However no one was more surprised than Osamu himself when he got a closer look at stranger in their midst.

"R-Ryuuga-kun?" the university student cried when he finally found his voice. "Ryuuga Hideki?"

Housho blinked at him in surprise at that exclamation, distracted for a moment. "The pop star?"

"No, they just have the same name; he's a schoolmate of mine at Touo."

"_What_?"

But 'Ryuuga' merely ignored them and silently stared at Mai making her the sole object of his focus. A focus most people would usually find disturbing but Mai seemed merely unaffected. She was much too wrapped in her guilt and sadness to notice the interest the young man was placing on her person.

He just stared at her mutely for a few minutes in silence before the young man finally broke the stillness with a statement. "You were crying."

Mai nodded at him and continued looking down at her hands resting on her lap where the piece of notepad lay carefully between her fingers, her tears still flowing from her eyes as though she didn't know how to stop them. "I know."

"…Is it because of me?"

"Partly."

"Do you want me to apologize?"

"No… If anything I think _I_ should apologize to _you_."

"That is illogical; you have brought me back from the dead, after all."

"You shouldn't have died in the first place."

"Again, that is illogical," the young man countered in a seemingly curious tone as though childishly baffled by her logic. "You could not have prevented that from happening."

"I might have had I agreed to help you."

He stopped at that before reluctantly nodding his head. "…I'd say there would have been a 50% chance of that probability."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute!" Housho finally cut into the seemingly intimate, private conversation as he stood up from his chair in alarm, dread crawling up his spine at the words he had just heard and suspicion crawled into his chest. One look at Ayako told him she was also thinking the same thing. What had their Mai done this time…? "What do you mean Mai 'brought you back from the dead'? Who are you, anyway?"

The young man looked him straight in the eye in a way that took the monk aback. He reminded Housho of a gloomy evil spirit that had a Goth fetish. "Who are _you_?"

Housho took a step towards the other man threateningly. "Takigawa Housho and I _demand_ an explanation _right_ _now_!"

Instead of answering him, the young man turned his face back to Mai instead, cocking his head to the side curiously like a small puppy much to Houshou's discontent. "What is he to you?"

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the monk practically exploded at being ignored.

A pleading look from Mai stopped him though before she turned back to the baggy eyed Goth guy. "It's okay; he's like a brother to me. They're my closest friends; they're like family to me."

Housho felt a measure of pride in his chest at having her verbally acknowledge this. He certainly felt like an older brother to her but they never spoke nor confirmed it in any other way other then their actions so hearing her actually _say_ the words touched him deeply and made him doubly determined to protect her. Even if it was from freaks like this Ryuuga guy. "And I don't like strange guys sniffing around her, you hear me, pal?"

"Bou-san, _calm down_!" John tried placating his taller friend while Osamu watched with growing calculation to see what his schoolmate's business with one of his closest friends was.

The baggy eyed sloucher turned to the ex monk again and stared him directly in the eyes with such blank intensity that it had Housho almost backing up a step. The fact that he wasn't even blinking was so… creepy!

"He seems to handle his self proclaimed duty as guardian with dedication… although he may not be the smartest, he seems to be 80.16% dependable." The young man finally commented. "Interesting."

"Hey!" Housho growled. "I didn't exactly understand what that was all about but I don't think it was good! What's that supposed to mean?"

"L-san, stop teasing him, Bou-san isn't your chew toy!" Mai growled out, snapping out of her self imposed self pity because of her growing irritation of the detective's childishness.

L looked back at her and slightly shrugged. "He reminds me of Matsuda."

The former monk, the university student and the exorcist froze when they heard what she called this odd stranger as they stared numbly back at the Goth guy who still had his eyes on Mai. Ayako poked Housho in the ribs to get him back to reality again but he hardly even felt it until the self proclaimed priestess sighed and shrugged in exasperation leaving him be.

Osamu, on the other hand; _froze_ on the spot, his glasses reflecting the light in his shock.

"Idiot." They heard Ayako mutter.

"Y-you're L…?" Housho finally managed to ask after a while, not hearing Ayako's words. "_The_ famous international detective _L_?"

"Hm," L muttered thoughtfully. "I should have asked you to refrain from telling others who I was before we met again. I should have thought that the probability of you blurting out my identity would come to about 95%. I miscalculated."

"You were dead." Mai deadpanned, sweat dropping. "How could you have possibly been in the state of mind to compute those kinds of probabilities?"

"He… L… _God_…!" Houshou babbled incoherently at this, his eyes practically swirling in their sockets as he flailed around to Ayako's disgust and Osamu and John's grimaces.

"Hm, I've never been called that before," L blinked at the appellation. "I have to admit, it has a nice ring to it."

"L…! I mean… _L_!" Housho continued to babble.

L looked back at Mai, exasperation in his low lidded eyes. "Not very bright, is he?"

"Don't be mean, L-san!" Mai scolded him.

Housho didn't seem to mind; he looked like he was run over by a dump truck. "I don't believe it… I just… don't… believe it…!"

Annoyed, L turned back to Mai. "Will he be like this all night?"

Mai remembered the time when they came across the Urado case and answered matter of factly. "I've seen him go through worse; he's actually being pretty coherent right now."

Houshou merely continued acting like a fish out of water as he pulled his confused and excited gaze from L to Mai. "B-but how? When…? _Why_..?"

Ayako finally took pity on him and stepped forward, her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat and eyes directed a pointed look at Mai. "He was the one Mai told me to meet; I declared him and his friend dead earlier," she then turned her accusing and curious eyes at Mai who flinched and looked away from her guiltily. "Interestingly enough, _he_ also told me to declare _him_ dead for the police. He told me that 'he could not stress the importance of keeping his well being a secret from the authorities…' or something like it. So, Mai, care to tell us what's really going on…?"

"I…" the young woman swallowed, a hard lump preventing her from saying what she wanted in the face of the expectant looks from her friends. "You see I…"

L frowned at her (though the action was unnoticeable to everyone else in the room) and decided to take things into his own hands. Mai was obviously in no fit state to divulge such a life altering detail at the moment so he might as well act as a catalyst for her. He was the one who broke her silence. "She brought me back from the dead."

L watched, partly amused as the two other adults in the room tried to grapple at his words in search of the logic behind it.

Mai wasn't too happy with him, though. "_L-san_!"

"What?" L looked back at her from over his shoulder, noting how frail and delicate she looked beneath all the white sheets of the hospital bed and how her dark brown hair made her pale skin glow almost as brightly as she did when she projected herself in front of him as a spirit.

"You don't just spring something like that on people; what were you _thinking_?" she half shrieked at him, supremely annoyed.

He raised a nonchalant eyebrow at her, though. "I believe I was thinking logically. No problem can be solved by hedging."

"That still doesn't give you the right to go ahead and break it to them just like that, you should consider their emotions!"

"That is illogical."

"Emotions _aren't_ logical, idiot!"

L raised a brow at him. No one had ever called him an _idiot_ since he was seven back when no one understood his genius yet. But then again… he contemplated this for a moment before humming. "That's the reason I find emotions largely insufficient in a case…"

Mai sweat dropped. _What in the world_…?

"What…?"

She froze at Housho's voice. Slowly, the young esper looked up to see Housho and Ayako staring at her with their faces as pale as her bed sheets; a mixture of anger, frustration and shock seemingly painting a Noh mask over their faces in a way that made her cringe.

"What did he mean, Mai?" Ayako slowly stepped toward her but stopped when she was about three feet away. The female doctor had eyes for no one but her. "What is he saying?"

"Uh… well…" she found that again she was lost for words. She really had no idea how she'll explain something so complicated to her friends. "You see, Bou-san… Ayako… Look, guys, I can explain—"

"I died," L again interfered; ignoring the glare the young high school senior sent him. "Although at first I didn't really realize I was dead at the time. And then she came and took me back to my body… at least that was what I _think_ happened. Taniyama-san appeared while I was at this dark place with a lot of little lights in it and dragged me somewhere and next thing I knew I was breathing again. It was kinda weird."

Mai watched; shrinking away as Ayako and Bou-san's faces twisted into several different emotions in several different ways. She wasn't really sure what they were but her inner instinct told her it could not possibly be good for her. They looked mad; and worried; and mad. And all that stupid L was doing was look at them back and forth, tilting his face this way and that like a bloody bird.

She couldn't help but glare at the seemingly oblivious detective.

How dare he blurt out her secret and then just stand there like a slouching post and leave her to face Bou-san's and Ayako's wrath alone after she got him back from the dead and brought him his stupid notebook page? She was starting to regret bringing him back, the idiot.

"Mai?"

Everyone looked up at the new voice that filled the room and all of them saw Masako's shocked face looking at her; eyes wide and sleeve covering her probably gaping mouth.

"Oh, hey, Masako-chan," Osamu greeted her nervously as she started stepping towards the cinnamon haired esper lying on the bed abruptly a few moments later. "When did you arrive? You were so quiet; we didn't even hear you come—"

_SLAP_!

"—in." the bespectacled Touo student winced at the red handprint staining Mai's cheek and a flushed, angry Masako beside the bed. Looks like the medium heard what she needed to hear.

"You _idiot_!" Masako practically shrieked at her, near tears. "You stupid, thoughtless, reckless little _idiot_!

"How could you? Did you have any idea what could have happened? Do you understand what you just _did_? You would not have been able to come back! You would have fallen into an endless coma! There are a thousand and one malevolent spirits out there that would have torn you apart for your power, don't you realize that?" the young medium was half hysterical as she shook her fellow psychic's shoulders. "Don't you even think about yourself? Don't you even think about _us_? What would we do if something happened to you?"

Housho had to pry Masako off Mai and as soon as she allowed herself to be separated from the other girl, she sobbed uncontrollably into the monk's chest.

Mai's face was riddled with guilt and sadness as she stared at the medium. In the course of the last two years without Naru between them, they have become the best of friends and it was times like these when Mai would be in danger when their friendship was tested the most.

"I'm sorry," Mai's voice filled the room at last after a few minutes of Masako's sobbing and the others silently trying to comfort her. Everyone turned to Mai who now sported a red mark on her left cheek. The slap was sobering and it rocked her out of her anxiety. Right now, she felt she owed them to understand her reasoning. They deserved that much from her, at least. "I can't tell you just how sorry I am for making you guys worry about me so much…"

"Mai." Mai flinched at Bou-san's disappointed voice. It felt like the hospital was about to topple over by the sheer force of it. "You can't go on unbalancing the astral plane by bringing back a spirit! You have no idea what kind of imbalance that would do!"

"I'm sorry, Bou-san…" she squeaked meekly. "But… I had to…"

"What do you mean you had to?" Ayako practically screeched at her, face almost as red as her hair. "Mai, what you did was extremely dangerous! Masako was right!"

Houshou nodded sternly at the young woman sitting in front of him, almost shaking in worry. "What if you weren't strong enough to bring him back? We don't know anyone who could have brought you back from there!"

"What possible reason could you have that you have defied taboo and brought him back to this side?" Ayako yelled, shaking in her lab coat, not trusting herself to touch the younger woman.

A tense silence followed as Houshou, Ayako and Masako all glared at the cinnamon haired young woman while John looked on worriedly, looking for a way to help and defend her as Osamu watched in awe while shooting L calculating glances.

Finally, Mai's voice broke the silence. "…He died because of me."

Silence so deafening it would have sucked in the air around them filled the room again. It was a little different from the other silences earlier though. This silence was filled with confusion where the earlier one was filled with fear. This confusion she felt in the air between her and her friends gave Mai the courage to look up and sorrowfully meet their eyes, willing them to look into the misery and guilt she held inside her.

"He asked me for help when I told him about Misora Naomi-san because she asked for _my_ help to inform L where she was and to give her a decent burial beside her fiancé and he found out that I can see the shinigami;" she whispered to them brokenly. "I refused him then and there and didn't want to think about it anymore. I didn't want to be involved in anything like that anymore, you guys know that! And then… I never really thought he'd die…

"It shouldn't really matter; it's not the first time I refused helping someone supernaturally before after… _he_ left but this time…" she took a deep breath and swallowed when her voice broke at this. "It was like he called me there. And my soul answered his call… I was literally _pulled_ away from my body this time only to meet him on the astral plane. I had no choice but to meet him there and when I did and I found out what happened… Something inside my soul told me he wasn't supposed to die yet… that I should take him with me…"

Stunned, Ayako stepped towards the younger woman. "Mai, do you mean to tell us your intuition told you to take L back to the world of the living?"

Mai hung her head and nodded sadly. "I know what you guys said about these things being taboo but I couldn't help it, Ayako; it just felt like the right thing to do… Like letting him die would cause so many bad things to happen…! I just… couldn't…"

The first person to approach her was Masako. The ebony haired medium wrapped her slender arms around her neck and hugged her softly. "Idiot."

Mai buried her face in her kimono and whispered. "Please don't be mad…"

John stepped over to her next. There was neither condemnation nor judgment in his cornflower blue eyes and the warmth of the hand he placed on her shoulder somehow told her everything would be alright. That no matter what he was going to be there for her.

"Mai," he told her softly. "We're not mad; we're just worried. You know this is the reason why spirits are usually after you… You need to take better care of yourself."

Ayako's shoulders slumped down in defeat before walking towards Mai as well and affectionately roughing her hair up. She then forced her grim features up to an exasperated one before she spoke. "What are we going to do with you, Mai?"

She looked up at them through her ruffled coffee bangs hopefully as she meekly answered. "Love me…?"

The adults snorted. She was just too cute, really. It was her greatest weapon.

"You're asking for too much, pestilence." Ayako teased as she quirked an eyebrow at her but then she glanced at L who was still staring at them as though they were ants inside a glass jar he was studying. "Although this doesn't make any sense. Why would you be allowed to bring a soul back from the dead?"

"Well would it have been possible that she was allowed to take him back if he hasn't been dead that long?" Osamu suggested with his chin in his thumb and forefinger, thinking deeply on the subject. "Similar cases where people have had near death experiences have happened before. I should do a little research on it."

"So I'm not the only person who had ever been brought back from the dead?" L commented, staring at them wide eyed like a small child listening in on a bedtime story. "So there really are such things as… ghosts?"

Everyone blinked and looked back at him; momentarily forgetting he was there in the first place, so focused were they on Mai.

Ayako blinked at him. "Shouldn't you already be aware of that? I mean, you were one for a while, weren't you?"

"Uwaahh… I suppose I was…"

Everyone sweat dropped at the wondering tone in his voice.

"Anyway, Ryuzaki-kun," Osamu stepped towards him. "What are you planning to do now that you have a new lease on life?"

He blinked wide eyes at the bespectacled younger man before answering. "Catch Kira of course."

Everyone in the room gasped and Housho was the one who broke the silence that followed it. "So you already know who Kira is?"

"Yes, however there were several factors confusing me and preventing me from pinning him with solid evidence. It is the reason why I ended up dead."

Osamu blinked at him while the others gaped. "So you know who Kira is but you can't prove it?"

"…That's what I said."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" everyone turned towards Mai once again, especially L who eyed her with that same blank look but with a hint of curiosity he seemed to only reserve for her. Mai ignored all of them and crawled over to the edge of her hospital bed, never breaking eye contact with the detective. "He's already killed you once; he can do the same again."

L returned the stare. "I already told you once; I will do anything to solve a case, Taniyama-san."

"But you just died—"

"It is part of what I do," he cut off her pleading. "It is why I am L."

Mai bit her lip and glared back at the dark eyed detective in front of her before sighing deeply and then sitting back, resigned, on her haunches on the bed. "Fine. I suppose I can't stop you. But don't you come crying to me when you get lost in the astral plane again."

"I'm pretty sure you won't have a problem making sure that doesn't happen again." L told her breezily.

Mai blinked and looked back at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Because," he started, using a tone reserved for toddlers. "You, Taniyama-san, will be helping me catch Kira."

"_What_?"

"Whoa there, wait a minute!"

"You can't be _serious_!" Mai wailed at him, leaning over her bed and clutching tightly at the metal foot bar until her knuckles were white. "I already told you I don't want to get involved in this!"

But L just spoke calmly as though they were talking about the stormy weather outside. "It is as you said earlier, had you agreed to help me in the first place, there would have been a 50% chance of me not having to die."

"But—"

"Because of your refusal, you have cost me a close and trusted retainer in the form of Watari; whose skills, I assure you, will be very hard to replace."

"_Hey_—"

"Furthermore, isn't there a Japanese saying that once you save the life of a person, you should be responsible for it?"

"That's _Chinese_ and you should be responsible for your own life!" she yelled at him in frustration knowing she was losing the argument.

"Nevertheless," L said a hint of steel in his voice. "You still owe me… or are you saying that Watari's life isn't worth whatever your reason is to disassociate yourself from this case?"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Ayako glared fiercely at the man as she moved to stand in front of Mai. "Are you _blackmailing_ her?"

"Like I said, Matsuzaki-sensei," L's eyes were pitiless as he stared at Mai's wide, incredulous eyes, letting her know in no uncertain terms that she will not refuse him again. "I will do anything to solve a case. _Anything_. Especially _this_ case."

"You can't do that!" Masako could barely contain herself, even forgetting to hide her angry face behind her sleeve. "Mai is not a weapon or a tool!"

"Please understand, L-san," John tried to plead with him. "Mai is a delicate girl still in high school. Aside from the many jobs she takes she needs to pass and take care of herself. She needs to take care of—"

"I don't care what she is or what she needs; the important thing is that for the duration of this case," L ignored them all, his eyes still never leaving Mai who was now staring helplessly at her bed sheets and he could read from her body language that she was all but ready to cave in. "She is mine."

Mai could feel him and, despite his uncaring words piercing through her still hurting self esteem from Naru's rejection. It didn't matter since she never expected to be anything important to this man. But the reminder of the case made his aura dramatically colder that when she first met him. Her intuition had told her the first time they met that, though truly driven, he was not a cold man, but now… she could feel the need and the near obsession he was feeling for this case. He was like a train without breaks and she understood why. It was because— even though he denied feeling anything about it— that old man Watari, were his brakes.

And Kira took Watari from him.

She still didn't want to take the case no matter what he said but… could she leave him like this…? He'd only become reckless and plunge headlong into another death and somehow, she knew she won't be able to save him twice.

"Fine," she finally said, resigned. "I'm going to help this time."

"_What_?"

"MAI!"

Mai ignored everyone else and looked him in the eyes once more. "Just until the case is over?"

L couldn't explain the relief in his chest at her answer which confused him. Was he… nervous of her response? He thought he was fairly confident that she would agree, judging from what he studied of the girl's body language and characteristics, he knew he was had a 90% chance of convincing her to help him despite her friends' protests.

How odd for him to doubt himself.

Watari would have laughed at him.

His musings were interrupted by Housho's boisterous voice. "Well that's all well and good but don't you think you can just drag our Mai around like some rag doll."

Osamu nodded slightly, his face carefully composed into one of his trademark smiles. "Where Mai goes, we go. We're a package deal."

Mai looked up, surprised. "Wait, guys, no—

L couldn't stop his brows from climbing up to his hairline. "This will be extremely dangerous. Kira can kill people by just seeing their faces and knowing heir names. He has even found a way around people who are using aliases and I still have to gather data on the murder weapon used for the killings."

"That doesn't matter," Houshou declared, gritting his teeth as he looked fiercely back at L with semi calm eyes. "She's _our_ Mai. Nothing hurts my little sister, you got that? _Nothing_."

Everybody else on Mai's side of the room nodded in unison at this declaration.

"Guys…" Mai breathed, her protests dying at the resolve in her friends' eyes. Heck, even John looked implacable. She knew enough to know that when they all had their exorcism faces on it would either take a miracle or a serious ultimatum to change their minds.

L seemed to understand this as well since his stance softened into a more relaxed slouch and he began ruffling the back of his head in exasperation as he looked at the entire group before him. Perhaps he can use them. After all, Kira's power seemed to be of supernatural origins; why not fight the supernatural with the supernatural? It just might work.

"Fine," he breathed into a sigh. "I'll brief you guys at what I've learned so far and then we'll start making plans. For now, though, anybody here who has a celphone with international dialing?"

Everyone blinked at that for a few moments before some of them shrugged sheepishly at each other and looked at one another questioningly until Ayako pulled out a read PDA from the pockets of her lab coat.

"I do, why?"

"I'll need to borrow that for a while." The famous detective told her, taking possession of the device. Everyone noted the odd way he held the phone. As though he were gingerly picking it up from a toilet bowl he just peed on. "It'll only take a few minutes."

"Huh? Wait a minute!"

But it was too late; L had already dialed the number.

/*****/

"L is dead."

A moment of silence covering the room like a veil and suffocating it like a blanket. Even the unflappable Near stopped his game while Mello stared back at him; gaping in stark disbelief and horror.

Roger stared solemnly at the two young men in front of him; one on the floor finishing a huge jigsaw puzzle and the other staring back at him with equal solemnity. He couldn't believe and he didn't know how these two would react to the message that he had just received.

Even _he_ was having a difficult time believing it. But the message was clear. It was recorded and written precisely on the screen of his celphone; a device he had learned to despise despite its necessity. He hated the fact that it gave him such bad news. News that he was now required to deliver to these two boys.

"You mean he was killed by Kira?" Mello asked breathlessly.

"I would assume this is so since that was the last case he was working on."

"No," Mello shook his head at him, his shock giving way to anger. "That's not true! He can't be dead!"

"Mello—"

"No!" Mello threw himself over the desk and grabbed Roger by the lapels of his coat. "He was going to catch Kira and bring him to justice! He can't be _dead_!"

"Mello!"

The tension was dispersed when Near threw him jigsaw puzzle up and allowed the pieces to fall down onto the ground, catching both of their attentions. Then, after a while, he began all over again.

"If you can't play the game then you lose," the white haired child remarked without looking at either of them. "That is what happened to L."

At his words Mello fell silent before letting Roger go. He had known these children enough to know when they were both in complete agreement since it did not happen often. Wasn't L the one who had pointed that out to him once?

"What about his successor," _Ah, of course; there's_ that _issue as well_. "Which one of us did he chose?"

Roger sighed at that before responding. "Since L died because of Kira he was not able to choose which one of you will become his successor."

"What? No way!"

"How about this?" Roger presented the idea as lightheartedly as he possibly could. "Since L was not able to name a successor, why don't you and Near cooperate with each other to solve the Kira case?"

Mello was silent for a while before he glanced at Near from the corner of his eye before snapping back at Roger. "Absolutely not! You know Near and I don't get along with each other!"

Roger fell silent, feeling a major migraine coming up as always in the presence of this loud mouthed genius. Granted that Mello would always be his secret favorite, it cannot be ignored that the child was far too emotional and noisy. Plus the fact that he had this ongoing rivalry with Near was not helping them any. He was about to give into the urge to sigh when his phone suddenly buzzed.

It was ringing.

Roger's brows furrowed at that. This phone was a private line, after all; and the only people who would send him a message through this would be Quillish or…

He flicked on the button and greeted the person on the other line cautiously. "Hello?"

"Roger?"

Roger's eyes windened, catching the attention of both boys before him. "Wh-who is this?"

"…It's L;" the silence. "I'm alive."

Roger looked up at Mello and Near, both looking back at him with various looks of concern which was unusual enough in itself, his eyes still wide with shock. His mouth opened and closed several times before he could finally voiced out a sentence. "L… L is… alive!"

"_What_?"

"Is that him?"

"Give me that!" Mello practically flew over Roger's desk to grab the phone from him and immediately barked through the lime, accidentally turning on the speakerphone. "Hey, I don't know who you are, you sick bastard, but if you're playing a joke on us I'll—"

"Watari is dead. Justice will prevail," Said the familiar calm voice on the other line, stopping Mello's tirade effectively. "And I _am_ Justice."

Both candidates to the successorship of L's title understood this clearly enough. Only one person would send them such a short and perfunctory message.

L was alive.

Mello couldn't stop smiling and blinking back tears (though not for lack of trying, though); and Near (though one couldn't tell from his face) was elated. Both of them were silent but a mutual understanding flowed between them.

L was alive…

And he was going to catch Kira!

"How would you and Near like to help me out this one time with this case?" L continued on the other line as though they were discussing the latest game on the computer. "Since I can't seem to decide which one of you will become my successor then I can choose from whatever data you provide me and the feedback that you can send out."

Mello grinned at Near who was now listening over his shoulder clutching at his giant jigsaw puzzle and the spark of excitement, diluted only by his dark eyes looked back at him with a small, calm nod.

"We'd love to, L!"

"Then listen to me very, very closely…"

/****************************/

REVIEW?


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:**

Please enjoy the rest of the story. I decided to update when this site refused to let me update my other fic Shades of Black.

**Lunime**: Pls feel free to make amvs as you see fit, I would be honored. Pls send me a link so I can watch too.

**Chapter 4**

L explained everything after his phone call to England.

About the Death Note, Light… and the shinigami.

Every former member of SPR were spellbound, awed by the discoveries surrounding what was to them, merely a case of mass murder. It was hard to accept that the feared vigilante was actually using inhuman powers. One that now had the whole world in the palm of its hand…

It took the whole night of Mai's confinement for explanations from both sides were fully explained. Mai did not understand why but L took one look at Osamu and refused to divulge Kira's true identity claiming he would tell them after they had settled in their new cover. Mai was basically ordered to stay at the hospital for one more day before Ayako was convinced it was alright to let her go home and L… Well for some reason no one could find out, merely hung around Ayako's office using her internet so Mai hadn't been able to see him while she was there. The last contact she had was him taking the notebook page from her as well as hoarding all her sugar cubes and her dessert tray.

Everyone was basically willing to help Mai… until L announced what he wanted to use as a cover for himself and his new found investigation team right before she checked out of the hospital. And now they were at an impasse.

"No!" Ayako stood up, shaking in fury after the announcement.

L merely stared up at her blankly from his strange sitting position on one of the steel chairs the female doctor slash miko called for while he was using her phone. "Is there a problem, Matsuzaki-sensei?"

"We can't _revive SPR_." She shot a glance at Mai who now had a slightly shocked look on her face that mirrored everybody else's in the room. "Think of something else!"

L cocked his head at her reminding her of a bird. "And why not, Matsuzaki-sensei? I believe it would actually work since not only will it give us a legitimate reason to use outside resources it would also allow us to get close to them when the opportunity arises. This also keeps us under police radar since people who call psychics to solve their problems usually do so as a last resort."

"Not that!" Ayako insisted. "_Anything_ but that!"

Housho tried calming her down after recovering from his own surprise as well. "Ayako—"

"_No_, you stupid monk!" she shrieked at him, causing the others in the room to flinch at the sheer volume of her voice and snapping Mai out of her little trance. "We agreed! We all agreed not to let her near those kinds of situations anymore!"

John looked away, torn while Osamu furrowed his brows, probably trying to think of another option they could use as a cover but Masako… Masako actually seemed surprisingly calm about the plan.

"I think it's a little bit too late for that considering that she's still astral projecting," Housho sighed at her, standing in her way to keep the red head from going after L's neck. "You've seen her, Ayako; instead of disappearing like we'd hoped her abilities would they're only growing stronger! Can you really put a stop to all that?"

"Have you forgotten all the wounds and broken bones I had to fix on her every time we had a case before? Have you weighed all the blood she's lost just because she's such a spirit magnet?" Ayako shouted up to his face. "Well I haven't and I am not letting her get hurt like she did before!"

"She agreed to help him, Ayako."

"Well then make her quit!"

"She can't quit," L put in his sloth like, monotonous voice. "I already told you; she belongs to me."

Ayako's glare was so murderous that it should have been enough to send him back to the grave so L's eyes widened even farther and the surprise almost had him falling off his chair. His expression was similar to the one he had when he saw Rem for the first time. "Mai does_ not_ belong to you!"

L cowered, the red headed lady scaring him and reminding him of the caretaker matrons at Wammy's house when he was still a child and the punishments they meted out to any child who disobeyed. Silence ensued until…

"I think it's a great idea." Everyone turned surprised eyes at Masako who even now had a sleeve covering her mouth primly.

"_Masako_…!" Ayako gasped at the medium incredulously as she stood beside Mai's bed.

Masako turned her violet eyes at the priestess, looking at the older woman from beneath her lashes meaningfully. "We may want her to lead a normal life but you seem to be forgetting the fact that Mai is not normal, Ayako. She cannot be what she is not."

"Do you mean to tell me that we'll just let him do whatever he wants with Mai just like that?" the red head demanded.

"That will not be a problem," Masako raised her nose up in the air at her. "Mai still has us."

Ayako, feeling helpless, now turned to young woman in question, tried again. "Mai…?"

But Mai's eyes have cleared. Masako knew her well. "It's fine; I can do it."

Ayako looked taken aback for a moment before her shoulders sagged in defeat and Housho was there for her to lean on while the monk patted her back and nodded to his little sister figure.

L swallowed at this before bravely speaking up. "That's settled then. I have already made arrangements and ordered everything we need; they will be delivered to SPR's old address since I was able to secure a lease there this morning; we shall go by the old company name of Shibuya Psychic Research."

"Even the old name?"

"Whoa, L, you sure about this?" Housho frowned in concern. "If Naru-bou or any of those Society for Psychical Research dudes hear about this they'll—"

"It's fine," L told him, waving his worries away. "If they come asking around I'll just tell them what's going on."

Osamu blinked at him in surprise. "Are you acquainted with the British SPR, L-san?"

"You can say that we've… met." He told them mysteriously. "There are also things I wish to discuss with all of you but I don't think this place is safe anymore. Please meet me at SPR's old office address. Taniyama-san and I will both meet you there."

Mai blinked at that. Was he picking her up at her apartment? She looked at the odd detective and found him staring at the notebook page he had laid on her nightstand again.

Everyone reluctantly nodded, wondering what they were all getting into but one look at Mai's confused face and this steeled their resolve.

"Hey, Mai-chan," Housho suddenly had his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, I'll take you home."

She looked up and smiled at him before replying. "No, Bou-san, I'm fine. I can go home by myself now."

"Seriously, Mai?" Osamu popped up beside her. "If you can't trust the old man maybe you'd let me drive you? You're forgetting I've got a spanking new ride just outside the building!"

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "And _you_ have to go to school on that spanking new ride if you want to pass through Touo."

"Argh, you're always so mean!"

"Good grief, so you mean you can't take John back to the orphanage?" Housho sighed but then perked up. "Ah well then never fear! I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, Takigawa-san." John bowed his head to him.

"Mai," Ayako bopped her lightly on the head. "Take these vitamins with you and don't you dare let me hear you skipping on them! You're lucky my father wants me to attend this stupid dinner party tonight so I need to spend the day at the spa or I would have most likely seen you home myself."

"I have an appointment in half an hour so I will also take my leave," Masako told them as she stood up from the chair beside Mai's bed, her sleeve primly hovering over her chest. "What time should we meet at the SPR office tomorrow, L-san?"

"Around 10 A.M. if it's alright." Everyone nodded and started to leave but was stopped again by his voice. "And everyone, I think it's not safe for you to go around calling me L anymore."

Everyone stopped and turned towards him. Since meeting him, the odd young man had taken them from one unbelievable turn to another. They wondered what he was planning now.

"Hey, that's right," Housho nodded, thinking. "That Kira dude wouldn't be watching out for you but there's no doubt it would be suicide if we started mentioning your name every time we talk; someone would totally catch on."

"So what did you want us to call you then, L-san?" John asked the young man curiously.

"You can call me…" here he paused and looked a bit warily at Ayako as though fearing another explosion of fury from her but then shrugged and continued. "Deneuve."

Houshou's eyes widened at the name. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"What do you mean, Bou-san?" John blinked up at him.

"There are three detectives in the world renowned for their skill in solving cases," Housho narrated grimly. "One of them was L, the other one was called Edgar Coil and the last and most expensive… was called Deneuve. No one has seen L personally and if anyone did then they would be sworn to secrecy because he worked on delicate matters that usually involved international cases. Edgar Coil works as a detective renown for his preference to only take the most difficult cases known to man and would reject a case if he didn't think it was worth his time. Since these cases are far too few in between, hardly anyone has ever witnessed him work but his skill was renowned due to some notable cases. But the third… is Deneuve. He's a greedy bastard who only takes cases for money but he has never failed to solve a case yet. Since most of the people who can afford his services were the rich and famous, those cases were kept or never publicized so his identity is not a matter of public record either."

"If that's so then you can't use that alias, Ryuzaki-kun," Osamu told L with raised brows. "If this Denueve person finds out someone has been using his name to run a company like SPR, he's bound to investigate and we need to avoid publicity."

"It's fine."

"What? Don't tell me you know Denueve too?" Housho was freaking out.

"I don't just _know_ him," he stared at them, unblinking and unreadable. "I _am_ him. I will see you tomorrow."

Ayako took one look at Housho's stunned face to sigh and drag him out of the room by the arm. Everyone followed along with several goodbyes to Mai. Mai gave them a small smile and a wave of farewell.

But as soon as the door closed again and they were well off into the parking lot, Ayako was all over the monk and medium. "I can't believe you guys just let her do that! It's unacceptable! You guys know it would be torture for her to live her life like this again. And this time, Naru isn't even around! How could you guys be so cruel?"

"Now, now, Matsuzaki-san, I'm sure they have a very good reason for all this."

"How could you say that, John?" she turned to the blond priest, albeit not as fiercly as she had turned on Housho and Masako. "Mai's going to have to relive everything we have had her try to forget these past two years; not to mention she is going to be placed in danger whether that man knows it or not! He'll just use her until it's too late! And the worst thing about it is that he doesn't even know he's about to kill her!"

"Will you let that happen then?" Housho asked her, his face and tone so unusually serious that she had stopped mid rant.

The she recovered and hissed at him. "Of course not! I will never abandon her!"

"I feel the same way."

"Then why—"

"Mai's bothered that she almost sentenced a person to die because she ignored her gift; you heard what happened didn't you? She almost died herself; she agreed to help in the end not just because he blackmailed her but because she felt guilty," Masako interjected and Ayako turned furious eyes at her but she ignored this. "The fact that she could feel anything at all beyond the pain Naru had left her with… This man— L— might be the key to her to move on by allowing her to view another reason to live. She might not like it but… this may be what she would need."

"But she could die!" Ayako hissed at her. "We are dealing with shinigami! If they wanted to they can take our lives!"

"Shinigami, like all creatures under heaven have certain rules," Houshou nodded at Masako. "If one of them is allowing a mortal to kill as he would then the shinigami is breaking that rule. There must be a consequence. And if anyone can find out what it is then it would surely be L."

Ayako sighed, giving up. "I'm sorry, I know it's useless to complain now but… I'm just so worried about that girl…"

"We all are," John told her with that gentle smile of his that instantly won the team's trust right off the bat. "That's why we're here."

Osamu nodded. "And besides, Matsuzaki-san; aren't you interested in catching Kira? In a way it's like working together in SPR together again. I think that's what Mai misses the most."

Ayako nodded reluctantly at that even as she clenched her fist and sighed. "Damn that, Naru… why did he have to be so damn dense."

"He's not perfect," Housho said as he walked over to his car with John following him. "And we can forgive him for it; because he's our friend."

Ayako watched as the others pulled out of the hospital's driveway, John in Housho's car, Osamu in his and Masako being driven away by her own personal chauffeur. Left alone on the vast parking lot just a roof deck away from the pouring rain that didn't seem to want to stop she stood torn. Until she decided that it would be useless to fight what was already decided and that instead, she would protect the girl she considered a younger sister with all her might even as she walked over to her own car and drove away.

/*****/

"What are you thinking about?"

Mai nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice that practically came from right beside her ear. She glared when she saw who it was who just talked to her. "L-san! What are you _doing_? Don't sneak up on people like that!"

He just gave her that wide unblinking stare and shrugged. "I was here the whole time. You were just too busy twirling that thing around your neck to notice."

She had left the hospital a little while ago shortly after her friends left. She knew she could have easily hitched a ride with one of them but for some reason she wanted to be alone for a bit, the past long hours weighing heavily on her mind. She remembered waving goodbye at L before leaving, expecting to meet him later at the old SPR building and knew she had to fortify herself before she had to go there. It's been too long and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it without breaking down.

She was not expecting him to follow her. And she was not expecting not to notice. She could scold her shiki but then again she had only instructed them to keep her safe from threats. If they had not attacked L-san then it would mean that he meant her no harm.

Mai looked down at her fingers and saw she still had a firm grip on her key, her eyes half closed. "I guess I just have a lot of things on my mind."

"And I would very much like to hear them." He said matter of factly.

"Look, nothing personal, okay? But I don't think you have the right to ask that of me." She snapped back at him even as the bus she had been waiting for pulled up in front of them and Mai boarded.

There were only five people in the bus, most of who were obviously coming _from_ work instead of _to_. And from the quiet, tired hum of their auras Mai knew there would be nothing that could harm her there. She took a window seat at the back of the bus and sat.

What she wasn't expecting was the creaking of the seat beside her and the fact that she would recognize that way of sitting anywhere facing her even before he opened his mouth. "I think I have that right. You're mine now, after all, so it would be my right to know your thoughts and history. It would help me figure out the best way to use you in this case."

'_Use you…'_ Mai almost flinched at the wording but she tried not to take it too personally. She could feel no malice in his words.

"I am _not_ property." She told him softly and then propped her chin on her palm as she watched the scenery go by and did her best to ignore him.

He went silent for about ten minutes… before he spoke again. "Do you have anything to eat?"

Mai blinked and looked back at him. He looked so pathetic… like a creepy puppy begging for a treat that she didn't have the heart to refuse him. Sighing, she rummaged through her messenger bag thanking Bou-san silently who took it from her new employer when she fainted before he rushed her to the hospital, and gave him a half empty bag of chocolate Kisses.

She watched in utter amazement when L— world famous, internationally known, most brilliant detective of all time _L_— took the bag and his face lit up like a child beholding a bountiful Christmas present. He immediately dug into the bag and began massacring her sweets, totally ignoring her. Mai's eyebrows climbed up to her hairline.

"You sure like your chocolate, huh?" she couldn't stop herself from commenting.

At her voice, the baggy eyed young man looked up at her with chocolate stuck all over the sides of his mouth and a Kiss puckering his lips the way the name was meant to do. "Hm?"

Mai couldn't help it. She giggled softly at the sight of him and automatically reached inside her bag for a tissue, wiping off the chocolate from his face. "You eat like a child."

He swallowed his chocolate and stared at her wonderingly as she absently cleaned him up. "Yeah, I've been told; people say I'm disgusting."

She smiled at his general direction, still absently making sure she didn't leave anything behind before throwing the soiled paper into a hanging waste bin on front of their seat. "Nah; I think it's adorable; it makes you look so innocent. It matches the color of your soul…"

He blinked back at her in wonder, clearly interested in this bit of information. "You saw the color of my soul…?"

Mai blinked, as though not expecting his question and wondering why she was letting down her guard like this. "Yes."

"What did it look like?" he asked, excited. He really was like a child.

Mai has to smile as she answered him. "I remembered it was a very light blue purple color… It was bright and beautiful."

He gave her a big grin that looked so out of place on his face. She knew he was happy but if any other person saw it they would freak out. His grin looked positively _evil_. "I like blue!"

Mai couldn't help it. She knew he was not a bad person, if he were her instincts would have been screaming at her right now to avoid him and knew she was being unfair to him. He was a good man proven further by the actions she had witnessed when she entered the Astral Plane to retrieve him. From the fact that he trusted and formed a bond with Yagami Light even though he suspected he was Kira and the fact that he risked all to try and make him turn himself in… to the way he despaired over Watari's death even though he would cover up his grief with long words and a plan.

She gave him a tender smile that seemed to stop the detective in his tracks to stare right at her much more intensely than before, his eyes widening a little more as though surprised by her reaction. She took the key from out of her shirt and began to caress it lovingly. "You know, when my parents were still alive, I remembered them as fairly sentimental people who believed in charms, prayers and luck. It was the reason why my mother kept this old house key as a charm to keep us safe and bring us luck. As I got older, I realized my mother kept it to at least keep with us the memory of a time when the both of us still had my father around; to keep the memory of both of us safe and protected as he did when he was still alive.

"I remember my mother's face when she handed the key to me just before she died… I could read the relief on her face and knew that there was nothing I could have said to make her stay. She just wanted to be with dad again even if it meant leaving me behind…

"But now, after everything that's happened to me these past years… I wonder whether or not the charm has run out of luck. It would explain why I'm in this situation right now with you. Funny, huh?"

L didn't know what to say. Looking at the strange girl in front of him he wondered if she even knew she was talking to _him_.

The ride passed in silence and she fell into her brooding again. She was in it so deeply that she never noticed L merely sitting beside her and staring at her as though waiting for her head to sprout horns.

It wasn't until she got off on her stop that she realized he was still _there_. And when she got off the bus he followed. Mai frowned and then turned to him again. "What the heck are you doing?"

He stood there in a slouch and his hands inside his pockets, his eyes still directly studying her oddly. "Following you."

She winced at his bluntness. "Well stop it; this is my house you need to go to y—"

And then it her. Of course he wouldn't have anywhere to go since his only shelter would have been occupied by Kira and since he was supposed to be dead, once Kira sees him, all bets were off. But still, a guy in her apartment? In her neighborhood? Her reputation would be in tatters! But she couldn't possibly leave him out here, either. He'd get too much attention.

"You could have said something to Bou-san or Osamu-kun," she scolded him. "Heck, John could even put you up for the day since he stays at an orphanage; why are you following _me_?"

"Can't let you run away."

"I'm not gonna run away!"

He shrugged awkwardly. "Who's to say?"

"I am _not_ that type of person." She got out from behind gritted teeth.

"After what I have been through, how can you expect me to believe that?"

She was taken aback. Of course, L had been betrayed by the boy he considered his first and best friend and he should have been hurt. Acting all casual like this was unbelievable and made it easier for him to hide his pain only…

Mai narrowed her eyes at the pale man and frowned. She couldn't sense a large amount of pain in him or sadness. Whatever pain or sadness he was feeling the night he 'died' had seemed to disappear overnight and was replaced by something a little close to apathy, a burning curiosity and a determination to see all this through. Her hunch (which was almost always right these days even if she _did_ ignore it most of the time) told her she was being heavily manipulated through sentimentality.

_Not fair_, she mentally groaned. "Fine, come on."

She sighed as she led him towards her building, clicking on her emotional abacus to figure out how she was going to take it if someone from school found out about this. Or what her neighbors would be saying… Some of them were good people who wanted to help her out so if they decided to they might report her to social services and get L investigated and then…

She shook off her misgivings in the meantime and turned the key to her apartment. She'd burn that bridge when she got there.

He stepped into the apartment without so much as a by your leave and Mai was honestly too tired to be angry. She still needed to come to grips that this man had decided to take up the office of her old job and that she'd be haunted by the ghosts she so wanted to bury. She needed to get a grip on herself because they were there to help him catch Kira.

"This apartment is… small." L announced all of a sudden, looking around.

Mai smirked a little. Maybe she could convince him this was not a good idea, after all. "It's all I can afford."

And this was the honest to God truth of it.

With her part time jobs, scholarships and the government support she actually just made enough to be able to live her. Her other part time jobs allowed her to get three sets a meal everyday and a little for some maintenance around the house but that was just about it. The country of Japan was kind but it was not a charitable institution; and she would rather keel over than ask money from Bou-san or Ayako.

Mai watched as L bent over her low coffee table and set his eyes level with the edge as though watching for ants. Then he went over to the sink and did a thorough inspection of it before finally noticing her tiny shrine.

"You keep a clean place." He commented almost absently.

Mai scowled at that. "You don't have to sound so surprised about that, I _am_ a girl, you know?"

Instead of acknowledging her, L merely straightened as he stared at her family's picture on the shrine and placed the tip of his thumb against his teeth before speaking. "Although this place seems well maintained, it does not suit my tastes… You will have to relocate."

Mai blinked several times before his meaning registered and she gaped at him. "W-what? Relocate? What am I a squatter? I pay for this place with good, hard earned money!"

"But it's not good enough for me."

"Then find your own place to stay!" she hissed, her hackles rising up like an upset kitten's.

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I will need to be by your side as often as I can." He said in an almost thoughtful monotone. As though he were planning something.

"What does that supposed to mean?"

"I wish to observe you."

This statement startled Mai enough to let her guard down a bit. "Observe?"

"Yes, observe. As in watch, inspect, scrutinize and examin—"

"I _know_ what observe means, bastard, I just want to know why you'd want to do that?" she yelled at him, offended at the implied insult to her lack of vocabulary.

He turned to face her again and again she became the focus of his unwavering and unsettling wide eyed stare. "I have never met anybody like you."

"Huh?"

"I have always thought that ESP and spirits were all a part of the community of fiction so there is no fact or truth behind any of it therefore I do not _understand_ any of it and that... displeases me. Your ability to travel between life and death intrigues me. I wish to study you," he stated frankly. "I have decided that you will fill my curiosity until this case is over. And my observation of you might prove useful if I want to fight with a shinigami."

"You can do that with the others; Bou-san is way more powerful than I am." Mai protested.

"Can he astral project too?" L asked wide eyed.

"…No."

"Then no, he will not do."

"This is stupid! I have my right to privacy!"

"I do not see what you are complaining about," L intoned as he poked at the books she had left on her coffee table before she left for work the night before. "I help you, you help me and you even get a big fat salary on top of all that. Surely even you can see this is a win-win situation?"

"And the only catch is to let you 'observe' me?" she asked in incredulity, she was beginning to get a headache.

The baggy eyed detective nodded once. "Yes."

"And you expect me to believe that?" but she knew she believed him; her instincts were telling her to trust him, after all. But the fact that she'll be giving him a preview of her everyday life was disturbing. It was not a request she received every other hour, after all and she was a bit rattled by. "Fine, you can observe but you will allow me my privacy when I need it and want it. That means no peeking in the shower and no inappropriate touching."

L nodded once again, this time, thoughtfully. "I see… so you were afraid of sexual harassment. I guess that shouldn't be a problem."

Mai breathed a sigh of relief. "Good."

"You are no Amane Misa, after all." He added with a shrug.

Mai's hackles rose again and she had to fight the urge to strangle the man but she guessed she could let it slide. After all, wasn't it the truth? She was no Amane Misa and from how Masako talked about the young pop idol during their short meetings around the television station they worked for, she should consider that a compliment. "Thanks."

He blinked slowly at that, seemingly curious at her answer before frowning thoughtfully. "Interesting."

The whole morning after that was spent with L on her phone making arrangements for an apartment near Shibuya and she spent her time packing her necessities into bags to take with her. Mai was still confused at the detective's interest in her but then she remembered the first time she worked for Naru, didn't she suffer through that bout of fascination and curiosity as well the first time she encountered the supernatural? Could she blame L for being curious?

She looked back at him, delicately crouching oddly in the middle of her living room, carefully not touching anything in sight as though it was contaminated by some sort of vile disease and holding her celphone the same way as he made arrangements with someone on the other line. She would have been offended if she didn't remember what kind of life L had been leading the first time she's met him. A first class car, finest living arrangements and a beautiful career. Everything anyone could ever ask for. How could she possibly compete with that?

No, she could not blame him at all so her generous heart would indulge him. Within reason.

_It would be the kind of thing her parents would be proud of her for, wouldn't it?_ She asked herself as she stared at her family picture; her mother and father holding onto a laughing little girl of four between them as they posed in front of shrine on New Years.

Yes, Mai nodded. They would be proud of her for it.

Her heart felt more at peace with the idea of working for the detective as she tucked the photo away inside her bag.

/*****/

"Hokay! That's the last of them!"

Housho dragged a forearm over his forehead after letting down a large box on the familiar floor and grinned as he looked around the familiar space. Nothing much had changed.

"It's been a while since we've been here," John said a though reading his mind while he himself entered the place with a bucket and some mops. "It's been so long I'd almost forgotten what this place looked like."

The place still had it's original furniture in as well as the sitting area they all knew so well and for a moment, the monk's eyes clouded with the memory of so long ago that had images of each one of them crowded in that sitting area, teasing and exchanging jokes… them plus two.

"The desks, some of the bookshelves and even some of the file cabinets are still here," Osamu said as he came out of an all too familiar office. "Any other things that need holding up can be taken care of the by the collapsible shelves we bought."

"First things first, we will need to set up this place, though," Masako came in, looking around the place with a mixture of disgust and nostalgia in her eyes even as she placed a sleeve over her nose and mouth to avoid inhaling the smell of new paint practically floating around in the room. "No one has used it since it was abandoned two years ago."

"Well what did you expect?" Ayako shrugged as she came inside with a shopping bag filled with disinfectant and soap. "It's not like they ever came ba—"

"Ayako!" Houshou hissed from behind her, making the self proclaimed priestess turn red.

They all shot Mai a look of concern but she was currently behind her old desk setting up the newly delivered computer. Was it already two years since they'd last seen Lin and Naru? Housho had never stopped checking up on her whenever he had the time and although it wasn't the same since they all hardly see each other anymore, they would always be there when something happens to the other. They would look forward to it but this past year, they felt Mai trying to distance herself from them. As though afraid she'd lose this sense of family all over again. And that worried him more than anything else. They can't lose Mai. So for him, this arrangement with L was also a blessing.

"_Anyway_," Ayako immediately rolled up the sleeves of her old gray shirt and started to pick up one of the monitors Houshou brought in with him, trying to salvage the awkward situation and cover her slip of the tongue. "Why don't we get this show on the road and do a little setting up like Masako said?"

"Do you mind?" a lazy voice from outside the office butted in. "I'm not paying you guys to chat around you know?"

Everyone froze in their spots but the most notable expression was Mai's. She turned around to face the door and, for a moment, saw Naru's image, all in black; scowling at them in all his grumpy glory…

Until the image stuck his thumb in his mouth.

The image of Naru shattered and in his place stood a man who's almost his polar opposite.

L. Lawliet.

Housho was pretty sure they all thought the same.

L widened his eyes at their sudden silence. "What?"

Ayako cleared her throat all of a sudden, robbing everyone's attention before anyone else could speak. "I understand that we need to set this all up here and that we need to get dirty even though the cleaning service we hired cleared out most of the room but… WHY DO WE HAVE TO WORK WHILE ALL _HE_ DOES IS STAND AROUND THERE LIKE A TREE?"

"Well why not?" L blinked at her in wide eyed innocence, his hands now in his jeans pockets and his tone borderline apathetic. "Since I have a better brain than you then shouldn't the lower I.Q. people do the manual labor since that's all their good for anyway?"

Housho was so taken aback at the memories that flashed in his brain at that answer that he was completely silenced.

"…WHAT?"

Mai quickly stood in front of Ayako to stop her from scratching L's eyes out. "Now, now, Ayako, he's just joking!"

L remained where he was merely staring at the spectacle with close to dead interest. "…No I'm not."

Mai glared back at the detective. "You are _not_ helping here!"

"Let go, Mai! I'LL EXORCISE THAT DAMNED TANUKIIIIII*!" Ayako screamed.

"That aside," Housho began, cutting through Ayako's violent moment like a hot knife through butter with his serious voice and everyone turned towards him to see him leaning against Mai's old desk. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Hm?" L cocked his head at him so weirdly that Ayako and Masako both flinched away.

"I think it's a great idea," Osamu piped in cheerfully. "We can go around from one place to another and the authorities won't be suspicious if we ask them confidential information if they think it's involved with a haunting."

"I'm fine with that," the monk nodded. He had been thinking about it since they've parted hours ago. "But do you understand the responsibilities of taking a name like Shibuya Psychic Research?"

"Hm? What do you mean?" L asked in apathy.

"Don't act stupid, we know you aren't," Housho's tone of voice suddenly felt a little bit colder and Mai had to straighten because of it. "You know what I mean. Taking on this name would also mean you'll be accepting cases involving the supernatural and I want to know if you're prepared for that."

L scratched his chin and looked up at the ceiling again. "Nope."

Housho sweatdropped. "Anything at all?"

L pouted thoughtfully for a little while and everyone started leaning in, more than interested to see what great knowledge the renowned genius L would be able to impart regarding their trade.

"Ah!" L brightened, lightly slapping a fist in his palm. "I've seen the Ghost Busters once."

Everybody fell over.

"I guess that means he knows nothing…" Masako grumbled as she stood from the floor, her sleeve over her mouth in disdain. "Then starting up Shibuya Psychic Research again is useless."

"Any idiot would suspect this place isn't really what it's supposed to be if we start turning away people who come to us with their problems! What are you planning to do about that?" Ayako raged at him.

L crouched down in front of all of them in his thoughtful pose as he looked up at his companions. "All I really want to do is to catch Kira, I don't care about anything else."

"Then why didn't we just name this place the Catch Kira Inc.?" Ayako sneered sarcastically.

"Oh what a great name," L told her nonchalantly. "But you know we can't do that, Matsuzaki-sensei; how stupid of you to suggest a name that would immediately get us caught."

"Why you—!"

"Now, now, Ayako-san!" John held her back this time while Houshou, Masako and Osamu snickered behind them. "No violence, no violence!"

"_Let go, John; he's asking for it_!"

"Well, I guess that's okay," Housho said after he was done laughing and L looked over at him to see the good natured expression return to his face. "We'll take care of the business front for you and you can just sit there and think up schemes to catch Kira in the meantime."

"Bou-san's right," Mai said with a smile and holding up a bunch of cables slung over her shoulders and Housho noted how fast L's eyes homed in on their young lad. It was so quick that he wondered if L had whiplash because of it. "We'll make this work somehow. I think that between our abilities, we can help people while doing the investigation on the side."

Mai sweat dropped when all he did was look at her. Again. And it was all she could do not to twitch. His eyes were so blunt and intense behind the glazed half empty look on them that she felt intimidated by it. They were so different yet so similar to Naru's… But with L's gaze it was as though he were trying to dig out her soul and lay it out in the open while Naru's… dismissed her…

"I'll…" she stopped and swallowed then tried again when her voice almost broke. "I'll start on the audio-visual room."

As soon as she left the common room, the silence that followed her was thick and dead. It was as though no one wanted to breathe for fear they would shatter it.

So of course, the one who broke it was L. "…Was it something I said?"

Before anyone could open their mouth, a tinkle of bells sounded in the room as the door opened and in came a middle aged woman with one of the most haggard expressions on her face that the monk had ever seen and he knew right then and there who she was.

"Um, excuse me?" her voice quavered as she spoke, searching for the most comforting presence in the room. "Is this Shibuya Psychic Research?"

Osamu immediately assumed his secretarial role and came forward with one of his award winning smiles. "Why yes, welcome, we were just fixing up since we had been away for a while. How can we assist you, Miss?"

"I…" she swallowed before her hands curled into fists and looked out at all of them with desperate, haunted eyes. "…need help."

Housho was right on the money.

She was a client.

/*****/

*Tanuki-Racoon

Pls... REVIEW?


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: *sigh* **Longest chapter yet and I am glad… I felt so ashamed for keeping you guys waiting that I had to finish this chapter before the next chapter for Shades of Black because my conscience just won't stop bugging me. =_=;

CHOCOLATE BUNNIES FOR EVERYBODY AND HAPPY EASTER!

Oh! Also, if I have any readers from Germany I need help with some research that the Internet can't seem to give me. It's about the Social Welfare System and Education in Germany and I have some specific questions so if you guys have any info, here are some questions:

**Are there any orphanages in Berlin?**

**Can you name a few? How about kirkes who have them?**

**Can you tell me if there are any special programs for orphans in that area or anywhere in your country?**

**University; when do you start? I know you guys can go as soon as you pass the Abitur but are there any age requirements?**

**Apprenticeships. What age can you get started on these and are there any exceptions with kids who are on social welfare?**

**Is a music subject (playing an instrument and being a musician) considered a major or a vocation?**

**How do guys in Germany spend summers especially 14 year olds?**

**Are they allowed to get summer jobs? What kind?**

**What is a typical 14 year old student's life in Germany? Is it similar to American high schools?**

**And do 14 year old orphans allowed to get a job so early?**

Well that's what I want to know, I hope you can help me out *big puppy eyes*.

Anyways...

Please Enjoy! ^_^v

**Chapter 5**

Mai was in the all too familiar kitchenette getting another pot of tea ready as an excuse to avoid the impending explosion brought on by the intense atmosphere blanketing the area of the lounge room. It was all to be expected after that client, anyway; and if L was really smart then he'd know that once he ordered Osamu to accept the case, all roads would lead to this. And now that their client had left happy there was nothing left the block off the metaphoric flood of resentment being bottled in by particular members of the group.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE ACCEPTING THE CASE?"

Mai winced at Ayako's roar. She took the now ready pot off the small stove and started to pour.

"Is there a problem about this, Matsuzaki-sensei?" Mai heard L ask in a confused tone.

"Of course there's a problem!" the self proclaimed miko ranted. "Nothing in this case even _whispers_ anything supernatural involvement! Why did you decide to take on a case that has nothing to do with what this office was supposed to stand for?"

Mai sighed and began bringing the tea out. She knew from experience that this was not going to end well at all.

Their client introduced herself as Sakurada Nene.

An agriculturist by profession and the last surviving line of her family's main branch. The only other family she had left was her stepmother and the sons of her older brother who had passed away not too long ago. The property involved in the case was a large stretch all the way out in Futami and it was lush and perfect for the dream orchard she wanted to found in order to indulge her love of cultivating different kinds of plants such as cherry blossoms that would bloom further; or oranges that would keep longer. She was a normal person. The only exceptional thing about her would be her wealth which was no joke. But she was a simple, good natured person.

Now, Nene had just moved onto the property that was originally bestowed to her older brother upon their father's death but then he died a year later most violently in a way that still left the police baffled.

Apparently it had been a year before she was able to comply with her brother's will. He had left her with the property and appointed her as guardian to his two children. His wife had died in a car accident two years after their youngest son was born so she couldn't survive him. So Nene was to hold onto the children's fortune until they reached maturity. A tough job.

The woman had grieved over being the only one left in her family and had never come to terms with her stepmother believing she had only married her father because of his wealth. However the woman was nice to the point of sick when Nene decided to move into the property with the children, promising to help her raise her nephews.

But soon after she moved into the property her workers and some servants started dying.

Gruesomely and unexplainably in much the same manner as her brother did.

And again the police could offer her no explanations.

They have opened the investigation and it was still running… but they were on their fifth death for that month and still nothing has been resolved and people were starting to get scared of even stepping onto the land itself halting work and ruining production. But the strangest part was how the children were being affected…

At first she ignored it, thinking they were just having a hard time adjusting to the new place and all; but when Nene found them sleepwalking in the middle of the night towards the woods around the house she got worried. When she was able to stop them and they came to their senses without remembering anything that happened, she became alarmed. And finally, when the incident with the children repeated several more times she became terrified. Since a case of a couple of sleepwalking kids was not something the police would put their hands on, she started looking on the internet for the best paranormal investigators she could get her hands on. After a while, she found them; not on the official website which had died long ago; but on someone's blog (which they later found out was Osamu's) chronicling the cases he had with them since joining SPR.

Mai felt for her, she could see the darkness of depression twining itself into her bright yellow aura and knew that the fear and the worry were real. However the evidence was not enough to pertain to anything supernatural. Still she wanted to help Nene so badly…

"I'm sorry, L-san," Osamu decided to speak what was on all their minds after Ayako finished screaming. "But this case is for the police to work on. What Sakurada-san has may be serial killer out to get her and what is hers; what she needs is additional security for her family."

"That's right," Masako said quietly, waving the sleeve of her kimono back in a haughty manner. "We're an agency that handles supernatural cases; we don't do the police's job for them."

"They're right;" Housho nodded regretfully. "This isn't any of our business."

L didn't waver, didn't even _flinch_. Mai had to respect his audacity in the face of such hostility and wondered if this kind of thing happened more often than not.

"It's okay, isn't it?" Mai asked carefully as she laid down their drinks. "At least we'd be helping the children; they're the victims here."

"That's true…" John agreed thoughtfully, obviously torn. "But there's not much we actually _can_ do."

"Oh please, not you two bleeding hearts again," Ayako groaned. "Like I said, this isn't anything we can handle, it's a crime made by a person so the police should handle it! I understand you feel sorry for the children but we can only help them as long as the case has some sort of supernatural involvement; this is definitely something that has _none_ of that!"

"It's seems like a good way to let people know we're active again," L said nonchalantly, still in that odd sitting position and staring at the tea in nonchalant distaste because it was lacking in sugar. "It would be strange not to even look."

"What's stranger is that you actually agreed to get involved in this!" Ayako argued. "What if you're cover gets blown because of this?"

"That's the reason why Yasuhara-kun here will be acting as my stand in."

"ARGH I give up!" Ayako stood up and grabbed her purse violently. "You go if you want to, call me if you find a case that actually needs a miko; I'm out of here!"

"Ayako!" Mai called out to her, concerned.

Masako also stood up gracefully as Ayako stomped loudly over to the entrance. "I should leave as well; I don't agree about taking this case; I have better things to do with my time. Please call me if you have need of my services."

"Masako!" but the caramel haired young woman was again ignored.

Silence wrapped around them at the exit of their medium and miko.

Houshou sighed, breaking the silence and glanced at L who was turning over the saucers delicately with the tip of his index finger in concentration as though looking for something important. "I hate to say this but they have a point, L-san. To us, the living is more of a danger than the dead. Our abilities would be wasted what with taking on this kind of case."

"If you want to leave then you can go," the baggy eyed detective told the monk, still upending saucers after taking the teacups delicately off them and looking underneath. "But I'm going ahead and I'm taking Taniyama-san with me."

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Housho sat forward, along with John whose blue eyes widened at the news. "What do you mean you're taking Mai with you?"

"I have given her the position of assistant so it would only be logical if she 'assisted' me," L's search ended when Mai, somehow knowing what he needed, put down the sugar bowl beside Osamu's elbow. "After all, I already told you… She's mine."

The remaining members of SPR stared at their new employer in disbelief and Mai and Osamu shared a look between them. They knew Houshou well enough to know that he would never let them go off alone without some sort of protection and John was too good of a person to leave anyone when he can help even if he did disagree.

They watched as L started drowning his tea in sugar and sighed. As long as L held Mai hostage, there really wasn't anything they could do but agree.

/*****/

"L, are you sure you want to do this?"

L didn't even bother to glance at the driving monk as he enjoyed the spacious backseat he was sharing with Mai and looking out of his window to take in the scenery going by. Futami was quite the woodland area.

"We wouldn't be here if I wasn't." he told Houshou dismissively, feeling gracious that he even deigned answer the ridiculous question.

The monk sighed. He couldn't stop himself from pestering their boss hoping he could still turn the large van around and end this ridiculous idea. "L, we're a psychic investigation team! If we get too involved in regular cases we'd be too suspicious! You know we need to stay under Kira's radar, right?"

"It'll be fine," he answered back, his toes scratching at one another in his usual crouch. "We can just tell them we're investigating the client's claim on the paranormal and solve the case at the same time."

"We're not really sure there even is a ghost."

"It doesn't matter," L popped his thumb against his lower lip. "I can solve this."

He ignored the monk for the rest of the way. He had decided and he had accepted and there was no turning back now.

And so here they were on a long drive to Futami in a white van filled with computers, cameras and whatnot, with the monk driving and Osamu beside him and John at the back with the equipment, ensconced in padded seats decorating both left and right sides of the rear. Masako and Ayako both refused to contact them at all.

The detective crouched on his seat with his thumb against his teeth as he watched the scenery go by from the back of the van, glad he ordered a spacious one. His mind was filled with a million thoughts and theories running a million miles per second like they usually would during a case, closing him up in a world no one would ever be able to penetrate…

…Until his eyes shifted a bit and the glass keeping the wind out from the car reflected Mai's thoughtful face beside him.

L couldn't resist turning towards her and staring.

She was deep in thought so she might probably be thinking about the case as well… but something else was on her face. That same empty, nostalgic look that he hated the first time he saw it.

And like instinct, he sought to take it away.

He leaned close to her until his mouth was just a hairsbreadth away from her ear, took a deep whiff of the lavender scent that seemed to always float around her, and spoke. "What are you thinking?"

"EEEPPP!" she shrieked in a way that almost had Housho losing control of the wheel.

"What the— Mai, are you alright?"

"She's fine." L told him shortly, barely sparing him a glance before he returned his eyes to Mai's glaring form. "Keep driving."

"WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU _THINKING_?" she yelled at him again, horrified and shoved him back by the cheek and clutching at her ear as though he had cut it off and blushed to the roots of her hair. "_Pervert_!"

"What's going on back there?" Housho kept asking warily even as he struggled not to turn for fear of causing an accident.

"Nothing, just drive," L told him calmly, staring at Mai now as though he did nothing more than just tap her on the shoulder. Her reactions were truly entertaining. "Well?"

"Well WHAT?" she yelled, still flustered.

"What were you thinking about?"

She gaped at him, looking like a landed fish for a moment before she growled. "Why is that any of your business?"

He merely answered with a shrug. "I'm here to observe you, it's part of the deal."

She pouted at him for a while before sighing and resuming a relaxed pose once more, her eyes turned to the view her window offered her before replying. "I'm thinking about the case, of course and…"

"…And?"

"And of how long it's been since I left for this kind of job." She answered grudgingly.

"Ah," L nodded solemnly and blinked slowly like an owl. "So your thoughts were leaning towards the sentimental."

For a reason he couldn't understand, her mouth twitched in a way that told him she was trying not to smile and her eyes lost her anger to be replaced with mirth. "You could say that."

"Being sentimental is useless, you should think about the case."

Her eyes took on that look of nostalgia for another split second before it dispersed and her lips quirked into a wry smile. "Sorry, I'm not that smart; I usually let my instincts guide me through these things; they usually never fail me."

"That means you don't have to think?"

"Doesn't mean that I _don't_ think."

"…How… convenient."

"Not really," her smile turned sad as she looked away again. "I'd rather think than be the way I am but it's not something I can help, I guess."

"You don't like what you are?"

Her eyes darkened. "Not exactly."

"Then doesn't that make you trash?" he asked nonchalantly.

She was silent for a good moment before she answered him.

"I guess," he didn't like her tone of voice. It almost sounded as though she were numb. "It feels like cheating to be able to do what I do when we're doing what we do if that makes any sense at all."

He really didn't like her melancholy. It just sparked something inside him; something filthy that he wanted so badly to clean off but he didn't know how. He also felt insulted at the slight he had interpreted about his profession from her words. He refused to have anyone take his profession so lightly; as though just _anyone_ could come up and solve the greatest thought out crimes in history. "It might be useful for a person to just talk to a dead person and find out who killed them; but it takes a brilliant mind like mine to prove _that_ to a court of law."

Her eyes widened for a moment at him and L felt significantly accomplished that he had chased the melancholy mood from her eyes somehow. But her next reaction had him returning the favor.

Because she smiled.

Gratefully at that. "Thank you, L-san."

He was mystified. Why was she thanking him; he only told her the truth. And he was insulting her so shouldn't she be angry at him as well? Really he just didn't understand her.

"So you think you can really solve this case whether there was something paranormal about it or not?" Housho suddenly asked from the driver's seat, eyeing them from the rearview mirror.

L switched his focus over to the sandy blond monk. This one was sharper than he gave him credit for. "Yes."

"…You know who it is then?"

L put his thumb back against his teeth. "Perhaps."

Housho sighed and muttered. "Amazing."

"Of course." L shrugged casually.

The monk sweat dropped. "The fact that you can say that with a straight face bothers me a bit."

"I'll need more evidence, though. Also, there are some things I need cleared out about the area to solidify my theories and build up enough evidence." He said as though in an afterthought.

"Then there's no point thinking about it now," Mai suddenly surprised him by hooking an arm around his neck and pushing him down on his back. The next thing L knew he was lying with his head on Mai's lap and the young woman was smiling down at him. "Go to sleep. I'll wake you when we get there."

"…I don't… sleep." He said, in a daze. No one had ever caught him so off guard since the first glimpse he had of the shinigami Rem those few short weeks ago.

"Then just close your eyes and lie down," she repliled calmly and began to absently look outside and brush her fingers through his hair in a soothing motion. "In a ghost hunt, the fatigued are more often the ones who get subjected to possessions; I'm betting it's the same for usual cases. You need to be healthy and awake."

"But I don't need…" his senses were getting hazy, what was happening to him? He didn't sleep.

During the long nights of what he remembered of his life after his parents died all he did was think and think and think some more. Watari always got him all the sweets he wanted in exchange for excellence back at Wammy's and even _he_ couldn't get him to get any sleep. He was afraid to dream… afraid of the nightmares of emptiness and nothingness that met him in his sleep. Watari said it was because his brain refused to stop thinking.

For him it was because he knew no one would be there to hold his hand when he woke up.

So why were his eyes falling close…? Why did he want to bury himself deeper into that scent of lavender that seemed to be floating from her very skin? Flowers were okay but he always preferred sugar. So why…? Why…

And for the first time in a long time… he fell in a fit full sleep to the feel of gentle fingers brushing soothingly through his hair with a sigh leaving his lips…

/*****/

"We're here, L-san, wake up…"

Mai watched, startled when the man she was gently nudging awake suddenly twitched violently and rose from her lap in a panic; his seemingly eternally wide eyes seemingly wider in alarm as he looked around him like a caged animal. His panting breaths and the frightened sound of his wheezes struck a cord in her and told her he was more than frightened, he was terrified and she needed to sooth him; calm him down; because if she didn't she'd be scared too.

So she reached out and hugged him from behind.

"It's fine," she whispered to him as she gently held him close, feeling him suddenly stop breathing. "I'm right here; you're not alone…"

She knew somehow that he had an aversion to touching; why, she couldn't say, she really had no faculties to understand that nor was she close enough to know why that was but it was an observation she couldn't help but notice. So she thought, the moment she hugged him, he would throw her aside and away, scared of being infected by whatever virus she brought on…

But he merely turned back and glanced at her with those wide, frightened eyes that calmed and turned confused the moment he saw her face, still shaking. "What…?"

"It's me, just Mai," she whispered as she let go of him slowly, watchful of any sudden movements. "No one else, just Mai…"

"Mai…?" he whispered as though he couldn't believe she was there.

"Hey, Mai! L—erm— Denueve-san! We need help setting up the gear here!" she heard Housho call from the back of the van, hidden behind the pile of equipment they needed to set up.

He and John managed to get out of the van first since L was still using her as a pillow. It was the reason she was waking him up.

"Are you alright?" she asked him carefully when it appeared like L was going to just sit there and stare at her all day. If she didn't come out of the van soon, Bou-san would be worried.

He blinked and then nodded slowly; never once taking his eyes off her .

Satisfied, Mai nodded back at him, slid back and opened her side of the van to get out of the vehicle. The place was _huge_.

The drive from the edge of the property to the villa alone took thirty minutes before they got there. They were parked in the front yard of what seemed to be a large, Japanese style villa protected behind an old European rail gate that had bougainvillea crawling over and around it. It was a lovely, rustic environment she would have no problems getting used to if she owned it. And the view of the surrounding forests that closed in on the villa from two sides was nothing to sneer at either.

"Ah, Yasuhara-san, you're here!"

Mai turned to see Sakurada Nene half run out of the house to meet an ever smiling Osamu who had already stepped out of the car with John close by.

Osamu met her with a polite bow. "Sakurada-san, we're sorry for the wait. Do you have what we asked for prepared already?"

"Yes!" she bowed back to him happily. She looked a bit more relaxed, as though their presence made her feel that much more secure. "Please follow me!"

Mai smiled as she watched all of this. Just like the old days they had Osamu take up the role as acting manager for the team since L would take too much attention with his weird and strange habits.

"I want the interviews done right away; inform Yasuhara." L told her as he passed her by and went straight for the house following everyone else like an overeager puppy.

"Okay." Mai nodded back and followed.

As soon as she stepped inside she was stopped in her tracks by an extremely sharp pang of dread crawling up her spine. The feeling practically stung her nose but it was curiosly gone as soon as it came.

"Mai?" John called to her; he was behind her already carrying an EMF Electrosensor and a black bag filled with EMF meters over his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Uh," she laughed at her friend nervously, trying to hide her reaction to the house. She didn't want to get John alerted for nothing. "Yeah, the place just… surprised me that's all."

"Yeah, it is kinda rustic, isn't it?" John nodded, looking around the place.

The inside of the house was better than what was outside. While the façade of the house meant to convey rustic intimidation, the inside actually felt like it was trying to be a warm home. The decorations were all sentimental bric a brac and instead of age old paintings, the walls were littered with family photographs. Two in particular caught her attention. A picture of a reasonably good looking man that bore a resemblance to their client by the shape and space between his eyes and he had in each arm, a pair of boys, one older than the other one having a strong resemblance with him, and another picture of Nene in her teens standing with the younger image of her brother along with a girl who looked just like her except with longer hair. Behind the three children were a couple of adults who might have been their parents.

"That's my brother," Mai jumped at Sakurada-san's voice suddenly beside her. She turned and saw the older woman had a sad smile on her face as she too stared at the picture and Mai recognized the air of someone giving in to the attractions of nostalgia. "This was taken a few months before he died; I'll introduce you to my nephews later."

"You have a nice home, Sakurada-san." John bowed to her politely, smiling.

She turned to him and smiled a lot more cheerfully. "Thank you so much."

Mai blinked at the spots on the walls and just like an afterimage, scenes floated in her mind's eye. Before she knew it, she had already asked. "Where are your old portraits?"

Nene turned to her, blinking in surprise. "How did you know we keep things like that…?"

"Uh…!" Mai looked to an equally surprised John and proceeded to think of an acceptable lie. "The place just… looks like uh… somewhere out of a period movie; that's right! It's a bit old so I thought it ought to have some creepy old portraits and stuff…"

"Well," Nene was still staring at her in astonishment. "I had the caretaker remove the fancy portraits since they creeped me out more than made me comfortable and I figured the children would want a homelier atmosphere than what it was originally. It used to be so stuffy in here and it brings some really bad memories for me; which was why I never begrudged my brother the place when he inherited it from Dad."

Mai felt a throb at the back of her head at the mention of bad memories. A tamer version of the dread she felt earlier came back and cast shivers up and down her spine.

"You did a great job," Mai quickly complimented her as they walked along the corridors followed by the silent exorcist. Crap, the last thing she needed was to creep out the client. "This could not have been easy, after all."

"You think?" she sighed and shook her head. "I don't mind taking care of my nephews; I love them like my own especially since their mother died. It's just that I didn't think it was fair for them to lose both parents so early. It's just not fair."

"I know," Mai instinctively reached out and patted her comfortingly on the shoulder. "It's never easy but you'll make it. As long as they know they have someone they can come home to they'll be great. You just need to be strong, Sakurada-san."

The client seemed surprised at her knowledgeable words but Mai could feel how grateful she was. It must have been really hard finally realizing you have no one except two children too dependent on you to really share your burdens with. She wondered if Sakurada-san ever wanted to be married.

"Please call me, Nene," she invited Mai all of a sudden, showing immediate fondness for her. "And if there's anything you need, just come to me."

"Of course," she grinned cheerfully at her. It almost made her grateful to meet such nice people. "Thank you so much, Nene-san; you can call me Mai."

"—don't care what she told you; we don't need you scammers around here so it would be better if you left!"

Mai and her host both blinked at the increasingly loud shouting as they approached their destination and faltered for a moment before Nene-san galvanized herself and ran off ahead of her, sliding open the door Mai assumed was supposed to be the base.

"Kaede-san!" Nene suddenly burst out, brows knotted at the scene before her. "What are you doing here?"

A tall older woman, probably in her later fifties and wearing an expensive looking blue kimono turned her austere glare over to their client. The SPR members were merely scattered around her with Housho wincing, Osamu serenely taking the shouting and L twirling a pinky in his ear as though this bored him.

"Nene," the older woman called Kaede glared at their host. "What is this nonsense?"

Nene seemed to calm down and clashed glares with the older woman. "It's not a mistake, I asked them to come here."

"Ghosts, Nene? Are you insane?" Kaede managed a low shriek that would have probably rendered some wildlife outside deaf. "What will the neighbors think?"

"I don't care what the neighbors think, I want the children safe!" Nene threw back. "The police are not helping and the children are sleepwalking when they shouldn't! We need their help."

"This nonsense about ghosts are shameful, Nene, it shouldn't even be condoned," Kaede seethed. "I demand they be removed here immediately!"

Nene's back stiffened at that. "I'm sorry, Kaede-san, but my decision is final."

The older woman's face turned puce and it was as though she was preparing herself to assault Nene before she thought better of it and raised her nose in the air haughtily. "Fine then; but if anything happens it's your fault!"

They all watched the woman stomp out of the room angrily, shoving passed Mai who almost fell to the floor.

"Jou-chan!" Housho was immediately by her side. "Are you alright?"

Mai smiled back, absently rubbing the spot on her shoulder Kaede-san bumped against. She did not like the aura that woman had around her. It was more than just anger it had a hint of _something_ in it that scared her. "I'm fine, Bou-san!"

"Who was that?" Osamu asked calmly, his glasses glinting and keeping his eyes hidden.

"I'm really sorry," Nene bowed to her sincerely. "My stepmother was against the idea of this having investigated by paranormal researchers. Please ignore her and if she gives any of you any problems, come to me."

Mai looked at everyone's faces and noted that except for Osamu and L, everyone seemed pensive at this latest development. She sweat dropped when L had an even creepier grin on his face than the one she saw when they accepted the case.

"Well, shall we start with the interviews?" he asked as though a member of the household did not just try to run them off the property. "And may I have the blueprint for the house?"

"Ah, of course!" Nene nodded quickly. "I'll get the staff, the blueprint is rolled up on that table over there, please feel free to look. I'll see you later, Mai-chan."

She smiled back at her. "Thank you very much, Nene-san."

She watched the woman go feeling dread crawl up her spine in a slow pace knowing something was going to happen somehow but knew she would never be able to find out unless she put herself out there and try to find out.

"All of you," L then caught their attention as he hovered over the house's blueprint, pinning down the edges with the tips of his pinkies. The sheer width of the tracing paper made him look like a strange bird hovering over its nest. "I want you to set the equipment inside the base before we conduct interviews, we'll set up cameras after that. I need to keep up the pretense until I can build up enough evidence to convict the criminal."

"You've already decided who the criminal is?" John asked politely as he peered at the plans from over L's shoulder.

L nodded without looking at the blond. "Of course."

Everyone sweat dropped. _Where does he get that confidence_?

"Well then," Mai barely stopped herself from twitching and started for the door again. "Let's get the base all ready."

She stepped out of the room to collect more of their equipment from the van and Housho and Osamu were about to follow her when John called the man back.

"Bou-san."

"Eh?" the sandy blond bassist stopped just short of the threshold.

"About Mai…"

Housho immediately flicked his eyes over at the blond priest in interest. They have known from experience that anything that involved Mai should be treated with extreme caution. Case in point would be the strange piece of work who was currently their boss. "What about Mai?"

John frowned, wondering if he should tell or not but knowing Mai, if they waited for her to say anything at all then it might already be too late and he didn't want to see her hurt again. "Earlier… she was acting strange after stepping inside the house."

Housho frowned and stepped towards the priest. "How strange?"

"_Strange_ strange." John met his eyes. "She asked Sakurada-san about the old portraits that _used_ to be in the hallway."

Housho's brows knotted and he went silent and thoughtful before sighing heavily, his fingers brushing through his hair. "Alright we should watch over her until she's ready to tell us anything, in the meantime don't ever let her be alone. She should either be with any one of us when she steps out of this room or with L here in the base."

"Alright," John nodded in agreement. "Should we call the others?"

"Even if we did it would take a while for them to get here," the monk winced. "Let's see if there really is anything here before we call them up."

"Not to mention Matsuzaki-san will eat us alive if we got her out of here for nothing." Osamu grinned.

Both men paled, Housho in particular was wincing. "Uh… yeah; that too."

"What are you talking about?"

All three men stopped and looked back at their boss who was now eerily eyeing them from eyes that should only belong to the devil himself.

After a few moments with no one saying anything, L repeated the question. "What are you talking about and why does it have to do with Taniyama-san?"

The three men exchanged glances before Housho finally directed his eyes at L, seriousness etched in every line of his usually good natured face. "Listen, L; we care a lot about Mai and she's pretty sharp for a kid… But she has a tendency to get in trouble. She especially has an annoying tendency of trying to solve problems alone and not ask anyone for help. So I'm going to ask you a favor now; watch her and never let her out of your sight as much as possible. Can you do us that favor?"

L blinked up at him slowly. "Why?"

"You know what Mai can do, right?" Osamu spoke his turn.

L nodded slowly, his eyes trained intently on his stand in.

"Without Masako here the only person who would be able to sense any hidden presences in a house would be her and she doesn't do it the way Masako does. Since she can walk around outside her physical body they can hurt her if the spirit is strong enough."

"I thought you said there aren't any spirits here?" L replied.

"That's why we are asking you to watch her," John said, pleading. "With Mai… we can never be sure."

L frowned at this, displeased that he would have to have some sort of distraction while he was thinking. Well he was primarily interested in the girl, after all. He'll need to watch out for her, anyway. So he nodded at the three men looking at him and answered. "Alright."

"Thank you, L-san." John said gratefully.

"We'll be back in a bit then, boss." Osamu grinned back at him and walked out followed by the priest.

The only one left was Houshou.

"I suppose there is more you wish to tell me regarding Taniyama-san." L finally said after a while.

"…Yeah," Housho sighed, looking him directly in the eye which impressed L at the monk's steadfastness. "We love Mai; she's like a sister to me. If she gets hurt because you did something stupid; I will never forgive you."

L blinked again as the taller man stepped out of the room and pondered.

/*****/

The first of the people they interviewed were the servants, of course. There were a total of five live in maids and a gardener as well as a cook who lived on the edges of the nearby town but travelled to the estate in the early mornings and left the family to fend for themselves after leaving them dinner around mid afternoon.

Mai got her fingers ready on the keys, knowing practice has had her improving on her typing skills since her references from SPR allowed her to get part time jobs that included typing and bookkeeping. Housho and John were finishing up lugging the cameras in, L stared from the safety of another chair beside Osamu with a plate of chocolate cookies he insisted on having. Osamu, who was going to interview the household and the servants, sat on the other side of the table, calm and collected as ever, a direct opposite of the nervously fidgeting servants.

"Thank you very much for giving us some of your time, we greatly appreciate it," Osamu greeted them with that charming smile of his that Mai had always called his 'Echigoya smile'. She would bet everything she had that he was enjoying his former role once again. "As you know we are currently investigating the strange things happening in the estate recently and for us to solve this, we will need your cooperation; is that all right?"

The servants all nodded at him with varying degrees of apprehension; an observation Mai quickly typed down. She knew it was not something usually done, from Lin's work back then she knew he only typed what the clients said and did not bother with the emotions behind the sentences so they would end up pretty dry in order for the file to remain objective. However, Mai couldn't help but put her own observations into the words she typed. She knew what they were feeling even though she wasn't looking at them. Their fears and nervousness ran underneath her veins along with the hot gush of her blood.

"Now then, according to Sakurada-san, there have been many incidences happening here lately," Osamu began formally. "Can you describe what you know of these starting from the first victim?"

The oldest looking maid nodded before taking the lead. "The first victim was my nephew. We had just moved here with the madam and her family and everything was quiet. However, one night he had decided to see a girl in town he had started pursuing and came back very late. The morning after that…" Here she took in a shaky breath as though trying to muster enough strength to go on. "We found him in one of the rooms of the house. He was… almost unrecognizable. His face was all scratched out and his eyes were—"

Apparently that was her limit since she suddenly broke down and the other maids had to support her to keep her from falling to the floor.

"…I'm so sorry to hear that," was all Osamu could think of saying before turning to Mai with half frightened eyes asking her for help.

Mai didn't need to hear his plea. She stood up and laid a hand on the older woman's shoulder. "It's alright; if you don't feel comfortable about this you can stop but if you think there's something we need to know to help you get justice for him then… I encourage you to tell us more."

The old woman sniffled and sighed, slowly gaining control of herself the more Mai rubbed her shoulder comfortingly before she again managed to straighten and speak. "They were gouged out… His eyes, I mean. All of them… the bodies… received the same treatment."

"Was there anyone who had a grudge against the victims? Anyone they might have had a fight with perhaps?" L asked a little bit too eagerly.

The servants all looked at him anxiously before the gardener leaned forward to answer. "None. We keep a tightly knit group around here and most of us had come here with Mistress Nene. We have not stayed long enough to bear any grudges against anyone."

The oldest maid nodded. "Mistress Nene offered the former servants of the house who were locals of the nearby village continued employment but, for some reason, they all refused. Even the ones who were with the mistress' father before he died."

Osamu's brows rose at that. "None of them had died?"

"None," the younger maids shook their heads in affirmation. "The killings only started happening since we came here and the only other death outside our group was Master Tsutaro's."

"Nene's brother." Mai commented.

Another nod confirmed her words. "And Master Tsutaro was kind and loved by the locals; no one had cause to dislike him; so when he died the memorial service was busy."

"It's probably a curse!" the youngest maid began crying into her white apron. "How else can we explain all these deaths and that they only happen to Mistress Nene's household? Even the children are starting to be affected!"

"Wait," Mai cut her off. "What about the children?"

"We would find them walking towards the direction of the lake beyond the gardens at times since we got here with them," the gardener told her in a worried voice. "It was as though they didn't know what they were doing. Once we've shaken them awake they would just tell us they were following Master Tsutaro."

"Also it's odd," one of the younger maids said. "Every time we returned with the children; a death would occur."

Mai sucked a breath in and looked up to meet Housho's eyes. She saw the same concern and surprise etched on his face. They weren't told about that.

"Was there anyone suspicious lurking around in the neighborhood before and after all deaths took place?" L continued to ask; not missing their exchange but still too engrossed with the case in front of him to care at the moment.

"No one." the gardener once again took charge.

This was confirmed by the other servants with the oldest speaking out for them. "The only other person around at that time would be Mistress Kaede but she comes here occasionally."

"…I see." L muttered, biting into a cookie thoughtfully.

Osamu figured, from the faraway look on L's face that the interview was over so he wrapped it all up. "Thank you very much for your assistance; you can go back to your duties now while we conduct a meeting."

All the household help stood up and bowed to them before filing out of the room. As soon as the door was close they all stood around the still crouching detective.

"Well," Housho began. "Everything they're saying is according to the police report four eyes there pulled up."

"It's odd," John said thoughfully as he flipped through the reams of paper Osamu and Mai had printed out earlier on that day. "No fingerprints, no DNA, nothing! This case is an obvious dead end; and cruel."

"Nonsense, there are plenty of suspects here," L returned and Mai couldn't help but face fault at the sound of his unusual exuberance barely making a difference in his next to dead voice. "Now that I have interviewed the servants, it may be possible that the killer only has designs on Sakurada-san alone. Yasuhara-san, I need you to look into her past see if she had had any rejected lovers or jilted friends. Put the camera especially around the places she frequents in the house the most. We'll be monitoring her and the suspects closely."

Housho sweat dropped. "Hey, hey; that's against the law…"

"We're looking for supernatural activity, aren't we?" L grinned evilly at him. "Then we'll need all the access we can get."

"Ah…" Osamu nodded with a devious smile of his own, his chin caught between his fingers. "I see; that's clever."

Mai twitched. "You guys have the mind of perverts."

Osamu gasped in mock shock. "Mai-chan! How could you think such things of me?"

Mai tried to hold back a smile. "It's not that difficult; it's what all boys think. Ayako told me as much."

An image of the redhead laughing wickedly behind the back of her hand crossed through the men's minds and Housho was the first one who scowled. "I think I'm going to have a little talk with that banshee about corrupting minors."

"Now, now," John tried to placate the taller man. "I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it."

"Anyway, what about the children, L-san?" Mai turned to look at L.

She sweat dropped when he still looked pale probably from still imagining Ayako's face. "Huh?"

"The children," she repeated carefully. "What the maid said about them sleepwalking and telling them they were following their father; don't you think it's suspicious?"

"Oh," he looked thoughtful for a moment, biting into another cookie and chewing before responding after a while. "I suppose you're right; then get them in here so I can interview them."

Mai face faulted. "Are you insane?"

L blinked up at her. "I thought you said you wanted to know more about the children's sleepwalking angle."

"But I didn't say put them on a chair and interrogate the poor things!" she seethed. _Just how dense is this guy?_ "They're just kids; put them on a spot where they even feel the slightest pressure and they would clam up tighter than a bear trap!"

L looked bored now. As though he thought she was rapidly losing his interest. "Well what exactly is it that you want to do about them?"

"Let me talk to them," L looked up at her in surprise. He was even more taken aback by her serious expression. "Let me do it my own way."

He raised his brows at her and pouted. For some reason he couldn't explain, he already disliked the children in question now that they managed to get such a reaction from this girl. "I don't get why they should have special treatment at all. They're just kids."

Sensing his capitulation and reacting solely from the emotions of disgruntlement coming out of his aura, Mai smiled gently at him and her hand lightly ruffled through his hair the way Housho would do to her sometimes. "It's because they _are_ kids that they need the special attention."

L stared at her smiling face; so open and honest and so full of affection towards someone like him that all he could do was wonder what he had done to garner her warmth. It was like the time in the van a few hours ago when she held him and willingly touched him so boldly. Not to harm like he had always expected whenever someone tried to reach out to him but to comfort. To care.

He didn't understand it yet but… he liked it.

"Fine." He finally managed to say, his wide eyes never breaking from hers.

"Alright." She pulled away and picked up a clipboard and a digital thermometer on the way out. "It'll be better to keep up our pretenses so I'll just check the temperature around the house and get some records done."

"Ah! Wait, Mai, I'll come with you!" John rushed after her on her way out.

L was left in the base still staring at the door she had gone through and, despite his distaste for wandering about; he had felt the sudden urge to follow her.

"Don't worry about it." L startled out of his puzzling of Taniyama Mai at the gentle, understanding voice from Osamu standing beside him, already gathering his things for his newest assignment. "Mai's also developed empathy abilities. We haven't been able to teach her anything about that since we don't have any experience but it's tied with her clairvoyance abilities and without any training it's easy for her to get affected by other people's emotions. If you're sad she can't help but want to comfort you; if you're happy then she can't stop celebrating with you. It's just the girl she is."

"She unconsciously acts instinctively to the emotions of the people around her so she probably felt you needed to be reassured," Housho stated on his other side, also garnering L's attention. "I hope you're not offended by it but she's a really physically affectionate person. Please don't think badly of her."

All the detective could do was nod. He didn't fell like explaining to anybody that he didn't mind being touched by her.

"And don't worry about her interviewing the children," Osamu told him as he stepped towards the doors. "She's great with kids. She'll have info for you in no time."

The room was left with merely the detective and the monk who watched the university student close the door.

Housho yawned, thinking about getting a short nap now that he was free but he was stopped short when he saw L looking at him with wide, innocent eyes full of confusion. Needless to say that he was officially creeped out. "Eh? What's wrong?"

"…Taniyama. She's strange." L managed after a while, still staring at him.

"Eh?" Housho blinked at him in confusion. "All of us are strange. _You_ are strange."

The detective frowned thoughtfully and Housho wondered what exactly it was the tanuki was analyzing. "No. _Strange_."

The monk raised a brow down at the crouching man. "What do you mean?"

L raised a hand to his hair, just right where Mai's hand mussed it up a few minutes ago with a confused, contemplative look on his face. "People don't like touching me…"

Housho blinked rapidly at that. _What the hell…?_

_This guy…_

"Do you… like Mai?"

L blinked slowly and frowned, his hand still patting his head. "I'm not… sure."

Housho whistled long and loudly. What was it with Mai pulling in the smart weird ones? Granted that Naru was a bit more normal, the fact that he still had a boat load of eccentricities was something no one could ignore. However, understanding that L had little to no affection showed to him for him act like this softened the monk quite a bit towards the odd guy so he decided to part a little bit of advice.

"Hey, L," Houshou began as he crouched on the floor beside L's chair and smiled up at him. The detective looked down at him, unblinking and expressionless and the monk had to wonder how in the world a guy could look so intimidating and vulnerable all at the same time. "It's okay to like Mai but just so you know don't ask for too much alright? She's been… hurt before. By a guys she really, really likes and she hasn't gotten over it yet. She's a good girl and very independent so she doesn't fall out of love easily. Take what she can give you but don't ask for more; I don't want either of you to get hurt, okay?"

L's brows knotted the slightest bit in thought of these words. He really didn't understand, all these situations and feelings just didn't compute in his head. Mai was truly well loved by those around her— her influence so strong that people around her even picked up her attitude and followed it— and the detective wondered how she managed such a feat. Was it some sort of pheromone she releases or a kind of manipulation? Did she have the power of suggestion? He should observe her more. He would use the opportunity the monk's earlier request held to study her further. Perhaps it had something to do with her incredibly soothing warmth?

L couldn't stop himself from reflexively hugging his body when he remembered how it felt to be hugged by her earlier in the van. In a moment of sheer panic, her warmth and her scent flooded through the haze of his fright that time like a light in a fog and calmed him down almost instantly. It was confusing to him how she seemed so…_clean_. Unlike other people he was not averse at the feel of her touch.

It was interesting why he was not afraid to touch her. In fact, if he were honest… he would say he wanted her to hold him like that again…

How strange.

So strange…

/*****/

"Hi, sorry to intrude!"

Sakurada Nene looked up from where she was sitting on the floor, helping her nephews out on what seemed to be homework. Her face brightened up when she saw Mai. "Mai-chan, hello! Please come in."

"Sorry," Mai bowed to her and then smiled at the children. Two little boys who strongly resemble each other huddled together at the sight of her, the oldest looked like he was eight and the younger six. Both were looking at her with wide, innocent, heart melting eyes. "I just came to check the temperature in all the rooms. It helps us decide where to put the rest of our equipment in; were you already informed about the cameras?"

"Yes, Yasuhara-san was pretty clear about that," Nene smiled at her a bit wanly. "Here, take a break first; we were just about to have snacks."

"Oh thank you, sorry for being a bother."

"Nonsense," their client turned towards the boys. "Ok, boys, this is Mai-chan and she'll be helping out, alright? I want both of you to be nice to her."

"Yes, auntie." Both boys chorused, still staring at Mai curiously and innocently.

"Then I'll go down and get our snacks." Nene smiled at them and Mai before leaving.

Mai sat down on the floor and joined them on the low coffee table, giving both children a warm smile. "Hi, how are you guys holding up? Sorry for causing such a ruckus."

The older boy blinked at her before he loosened his hold around his younger brother and relaxed, pleased he was being given some respect. "It's fine, we've been through more. I'm Kuroki and this is my little brother Ginzou."

Mai was struck by the strong front the older brother was making. How sad for such a young thing to be strong for his younger brother. She remembered when her mother died… she wondered if she would have been as strong if she had someone she had to protect as well. Would it have been easier or harder...?

"Wow, you guys are amazing, being able to hold up like this and helping your aunt," she told them with genuine respect. "That's awesome."

Both boys blinked at her innocently again before looking at each other. Mai watched them communicate with just a glance before they parted and turned to her with such serious looks on their faces that they had her instantly worried.

"Oneechan," Kuroki suddenly whispered to her and Mai could feel a shot of fear from him that suddenly made her feel cold. "Will you… make Auntie go away?"

The young esper's eyes widened at that even as her heart thumped heavily in her chest.

What in the world was going on…?

/*****/

FEEDBACK NEEDED PLEASE!


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: *sigh* **I'm sorry about the wait. =_=;

**Rosebud in Amber, Luna lupus est puer, Alice, justbecause111, bbhelen3162, Mendokusai88, YunaNeko, Orihime-San** GLOMP!, **FictionFantasy VI, Reji Neguro, TheAnonymousTraitor, Lunime, pinchess07, Jac Grove, naruta, letty, Nunnally, hyao, darkbeyonddeath666, destroying tokyo**...

If you guys are still reading this then I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please rest assured that your continued support motivates me to keep on with the story and I am just sorry I cannot give you more updates because of my other story. Hopefully, the next one will be soon. No fear, I have no intentions of abandoning this project; I love this pair too much; ^_^!

In the meantime...

Please Enjoy! ^_^v

**Chapter 6**

Osamu had managed to come back earlier than he had expected; everything about Sakurada Nene seemed to be a matter of public record but, as most things, some information needed time to be processed. These included a detailed copy of her genealogy that he felt he should get his hands on as a perfectionist researcher would even though he doubted it would be of much help with the case.

Arranging his findings away in Mai's abandoned laptop; he ignored L who was currently staring at the monitors being fed with images by the cameras Bou-san and the others have already managed to set up. The house was large but it was not large enough for them to require accounting for every square inch of it and since the angles were based for a human aspect and not supernatural the Touo student thought this was was logical enough. In some ways he had discovered investigating human criminals was no different than catching ghosts and demons.

Currently, the monk was taking a little nap on the base couch and who could blame him? He had been the one to drive them from Shibuya all the way down here to Futami; the ride was bound to be exhausting. The college student was a bit tired himself so he wondered how L hardly even showed any signs of nodding off. The Touo student, however, looked up when Mai and John walked into the room, closing the door behind them. Osamu was about to greet them cheerfully when he saw John's pale face and Mai's thoughtful one.

It didn't take a genius to ascertain that something happened on their little excursion to check on the children. With Mai, it usually didn't take a genius; it was written all over her face. It was the reason why she was dear to him because she was not the kind of girl who played games.

"Hey, guys," the bespectacled young man greeted anyways as soon as he managed to recover and hide his worry for the teenage esper. "You done?"

"O-oh, Osamu-kun," John gave him a small wave and a wavering smile. "You're back early."

"Yeah, I had to wait for most of the things I needed, I'll be setting back out early tomorrow for the family's geneology records and police records," he glanced again at Mai who seemed to have been automatically drawn to the small kitchenette and started making tea. "What happened?"

John merely glanced at Mai apprehensively which Housho caught since he started waking up from his nap, disturbed by the noise and the presence of his surrogate little sister in the room.

"Jouchan?" the monk frowned at her then looked to John when he received no answer. "What happened, John? I thought you guys went to see the children?"

"Mai did," the blond answered with a sigh and a twitch. "But I was busy setting up the camera in a nearby room when she visited the children; since Sakurada-san was there I thought it would have been alright to leave them be for a bit."

"And?" this one was coming from L; Osamu was surprised that he was already observing Mai when he looked at his boss. How did the detective manage to move so quickly and silently? He should get some pointers. "What did you find?"

The question was obviously directed at Mai's back which stiffened at being directly addressed but she didn't answer. L moved as if to repeat the question but a motion from Houshou convinced him to wait. Osamu thought this was a wise decision; it was always better to wait for Mai and keep up with _her_ pace instead of forcing her to keep up with _theirs_. He had always thought it was one of the major things Naru could have improved when they were all working together; it would have been the best way for Mai to garner some well deserved self esteem and improve her thought processes. He strongly guessed that had Naru adjusted to her pace back then he would not have called and implied that she was an idiot so much and it would have saved them from a lot of their arguments.

But then again Naru didn't wait for anybody.

Finally, Mai was done and was distributing tea to them all. She saved L for last, handing him the sugar bowl which he reached for wholeheartedly. She then hugged the tray to herself, her cinnamon eyes haunted and anxious.

L stared at her intently and took a sip of tea before speaking. "Well? What did you find out?"

Osamu's brows furrowed a little at the shadow haunting Mai's face as she spoke. "The children asked me if I could make their aunt go away."

All the men stiffened at her announcement and Osamu swore he heard Houshou's heart stop beating for a second.

She continued. "We were chatting so nicely and then I complimented them about how amazing they were helping their aunt and all and all of sudden... from out of the blue they asked me if I could get rid of their aunt."

Houshou frowned at her worried tone before deciding to ask her. "Did you ask why?"

Mai shook her head, still deep in her worry. "Sakurada-san came back before I could ask them and then it was like nothing happened. They both looked as though they adored her."

It was a moment before L broke the silence that permeated the entire room with the announcement. "…You think Sakurada-san might be using physical abuse on them to make them ask that of you?"

Osamu stopped in his tracks and stared at the detective with his glasses covered in a bright glare from the laptop monitor. Although it was not an impossibility he found it hard to believe someone like Sakurada Nene would actually do something like that and if she did... well then that surely was no joke.

The question seemed to wake Mai from her thoughtful state with a gasp and her resolve lit her eyes back into their lovely bright flames in her denial. "NO! Of _course_ _not_; how can you _think_ that of her?"

L continued to stare up at her unblinkingly, a sugar cube ready to be popped into his mouth. "Why not? It wouldn't be the first time a guardian has used physical abuse on their wards to stave off a pool of frustration what with being given the unexpected responsibility of taking care of two children that aren't even her own."

"_Not_ true, she _loves_ those kids!" she argued back fiercely.

"How can you tell?"

"I just _can_, okay?"

"Come back when you've got undoubted proof." L drank the tea in dismissal.

"I think you're missing her point," Houshou intervened as he lay down his now empty teacup. "Are you wondering if they're possessed, Mai?"

Osamu watched the young woman turn towards the monk, her expression placated even as she tightened her hold on her tray. "I… They don't _feel_ possessed, Bou-san."

Ah, so that was the real reason why she got defensive when L brought up the child abuse angle. The part that she sensed no signs of spiritual manipulation in the children's words despite what they said had made her snap. She genuinely cared for the children but she still doubted her jugdment. These were one of the times when Osamu readily wished he could hit Naru even if it was just once and even if Lin did beat him up after. Though, with how the elder man treated Mai before they left he didn't think Lin would put up much of a defense for his prick of a boss anyway.

Houshou nodded, crossing his arms over his chest as he contemplated the issue. "Want me to stick some wards to their rooms for you tonight?"

Her relief was like a cue for them all to breathe again. "That would be wonderful."

L continued frowning. "I don't understand. It is not logical to act like this when there is clearly a rational explanation for this behavior. From what I can see, Sakurada-san is one of the people who have the most to gain out of everybody in the household in the event of Sakurada Tsutaro and his children's deaths. Covering it up with the angle that it may have been caused by supernatural means by using us would be easy enough."

"It's fine, L-san," Osamu intervened at that moment, not wanting to cause an argument that could distress Mai further. "I'll look into the children's medical records while I'm out tomorrow so we can clarify that angle; you don't mind, do you, Mai?"

"Nene-san was sincere when she came to us for help," Mai stated with a lot more confidence, garnering L's intense attention again at the firmness of her voice. "I know I can't prove this to you but... I can feel it; here in my heart. If the culprit of the murders _is_ human then I can assure you that it _cannot_ be Nene-san."

"I know." And Osamu believed her from the bottom of his heart; he had seen her in action and experienced her visions too often when they were still working together to doubt her now. However he was a professional and he won't leave a stone unturned. Fatal mistakes were borne from carelessness.

She rewarded him with a smile, glad he understood and Osamu felt warmed by it. That smile always did make people want to give her the world.

"Why don't we go ahead and have dinner early?" John suggested as he gave Mai one of his gentle smiles. "You should rest; you've had a long day, yourself, Mai-chan."

"Hmm." She murmured and nodded and then followed John to the dining room where they were told they can get dinner from.

Housho stood up and stretched before he started for the door as well. "I should go and start on those wards. And I should get some in Mai's room too."

"You really think it's a spirit, Bou-san?" Osamu asked, blinking up at the older man.

"Who knows?" the monk shrugged, wrapping his prayer beads around his hand. "With Mai it can't hurt to be too careful."

"True."

L frowned after the retreating trio thoughtfully and Osamu did not fail to notice this.

"Please don't take it badly, Ryuu— er, L-san," he smiled when the detective glanced his way from the corner of his eye. "It's just you never know with Mai-chan; with her, anything could happen and most of it unplanned; so please indulge us even if it's just a little bit."

The baggy eyed young man frowned and then turned his face up and away from the doorway their three members just exited to watch the monitors again. "I already decided that you can do anything you want involving Taniyama-san's safety. After all, if she was harmed then I lose my test subject."

The bespectacled Touo student sweat dropped at that through his enigmatic smile. If he were honest, Osamu understood L's fascination with Mai; it was almost the same fascination Naru had for the girl and her powers back then. _Almost_ being the keyword. Somehow there was something different in L's regard and it made Osamu almost wish he had Mai's clairvoyance to understand what it was.

He didn't know much about Ryuga Hideki. His erstwhile classmate had always been an enigma to him and all his other friends at the university but he, unlike the others, had noted his unnatural obsession with Yagami Light back then. He had watched the tennis match between him and Light on the school grounds and if he had had any doubts about the drab dressed man's ability to match the neater looking young man then that game dissolved all his doubts in a pile of acidic slush. Yasuhara Osamu had prided himself with being able to look underneath the underneath especially after working for SPR and it was not hard for him to understand that that odd young man was after the police chief's son. For good or ill he knew something was up and it would behoove him to interfere. But now he had a better seat and he had a very good view of the game that was about to unfold between his two classmates and to be honest, he couldn't wait for things to get started. So for now he will observe. He might not have the ability to psychically tap into someone else's feelings but he had enough perception to analyze what he saw and come to his own conclusions.

He would reserve his judgments until then. But the moment he sees Mai hurt then all bets were off.

/*****/

"...It has to be tonight..."

A large, antique armoire shook as the words floated around it from the shadowy form that had entered the darkened room musty with age and neglect. A single candle lit the room but not by much. It was as though the light of that candle was swallowed by the darkness around it.

"You will kill them all tonight..." the voice whispered out again.

The sounds of chains dropping bit by bit rang into the stillness of the room and the shaking became even fiercer.

"...I will accept no failure..."

The sound of scratching from inside the old furniture filled the room; as though someone was trying to claw their way out.

"Patience," the voice commanded and the armoire stilled. "...If you do this then I will finally free you..."

A hissing sound and a faint gasping cry came from the sturdy armoire but the walls were too thick for it to be heard.

And outside the room... the sun began to set and the signs of a storm began to brew...

/*****/

Mai looked around helplessly around her as she realized she was in one of her 'dreams' again. She was still wearing her mint green pajama bottoms with the frog print and a navy blue tank top. She was barefoot as well which was a pretty good indication that she was walking in her sleep outside her physical body. If that wasn't a clear enough indication then surely the thousands of spirit orbs floating and dancing around her in the middle of this darkness would have been a _dead_ giveaway, no pun intended.

Crap.

"…No. You've got to be kidding me…"

She sighed and took advantage of the situation by looking into the house anyway to see if there really was any sort of supernatural disturbance going on. It wouldn't hurt to check no matter what L said about the case being purely run by humans.

For a moment she looked around and waited. Waited for the soft sound of her name called out by a familiar voice. Would Gene come? Would he appear before her again...? What would she do if he did? It had been two long years...

Realizing that she was hoping for the impossible again, Mai shook herself out of her fantasies and with a faint mental prompt, her surroundings changed and soon she found herself floating above the house of their client, clearly being able to see through walls and roof and rooms. It was late so most of the people inside there were asleep.

She saw Sakurada Nene getting ready for bed. The maids with the exception of a couple elderly ones tending to some ironing were all asleep. The gardener had also tucked in. Kaede-san was also asleep but Mai was a bit concerned at the sight of a black candle shining in her room. Shouldn't she blow that off to prevent it from causing a fire? Then again it was placed inside a dome of glass that had a hole on top to let out the heat and smoke so she guessed she shouldn't be worried. In their rooms the boys were asleep… except for L.

She observed the man in the base, still staring at the monitors and munching on some butterscotch cookies. The amount of sugar she had seen him consume made her teeth ache just thinking about it but she had heard from somewhere that eating sweets made a person think better so she guessed he was following that reasoning. She wondered how the man didn't get fat. Being a girl who made a rule out of eating too much sweets, it was kind of depressing. Not that she made enough money to splurge on sweets, anyway.

Still she couldn't help but be worried about him. Why wasn't he sleeping? Maybe she should wake up and drag him to go to bed. Maybe recruit Bou-san and Osamu to tie him to a futon or something.

She looked closer and observed the detective.

There was something about this man. True he could be annoying, rude, insensitive, cold and pretty much cynical about human interaction but… there was something undeniably sad about him that made her want to take care of him. It was like looking at Naru but not really. Because Naru; for all his brilliance; was never cuddly.

Mai swallowed the slight bitter taint that clogged up her throat at the memories and wished them away even as her mouth twitched into a sad smile. L deserved more than be compared to someone who will never come back. Someone who had broken her heart into tiny little unrecognizable pieces.

She was about to go back to her body, not really finding anything in the place when she decided to glance over towards the children's room to make sure they were safe. Her eyes widened when she saw a blue tinged spirit orb the size of an adult fist floating outside the children's window; the wards preventing it from entering. It then floated up and came closer to her and stopped in front of the teen girl.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked the orb, knowing it was someone's spirit coming to speak to her. "You lost? Need help?"

It merely continued to float gently in front of her as though in invitation. Not sensing any malicious intent from the little ball of light, Mai reached out towards it. As soon as she did she was engulfed in a memory.

It was a warm memory; perhaps it was the middle of summer; everything was dry and green and Sakurada Nene's house looked brighter here. Mai felt her feet touch the ground and the green carpet of grass engulfed her feet. She must be in the house's garden.

"KYAAAAHHHH! Oniichan!" Mai turned around at the alarmed shriek and saw a fourteen year old Sakurada Nene as she was in the photographs in the hallways kicking at a much younger Tsutaro who was holding a caterpillar on a stick at her. "Oniichan, get it away!"

Tsutaro merely laughed wickedly, still continuing with his mischief. "Oh come on, it's just a bug; it can't hurt you!"

"I hate you!"

"Scaredy cat~!"

"Shut up, just get it away!" Nene continued to back away in fear

Suddenly the stick was taken from the boy's hand from behind Tsutaro and held by a stern looking... Nene?

"Oniichan, quit bullying Nene-chan!" this Nene look alike scolded the taller boy without fear.

"Aw, Nana, you're no fun!" Tsutaro complained at the shorter girl.

"I hate Oniichan," Nene sobbed, running behind this girl named Nana. "Why don't you bully Nana-nee instead?"

"Because Nana isn't afraid of anything!" Tsutaro replied in exasperation, throwing his hands behind his head.

"Oniichan, don't be mean," Nana continued to scold a now pouting older brother. "It's not nice."

"Fine, Goody Two Shoes Nana."

Nana's brow twitched in anger. "_What_ did you just call me?"

Tsutaro ran away laughing from the angered girl. "Goooody Two Shoes Nanaaaa~! She's gonna grow up into an old maid~!"

Nana raised her fist, preparing to go after her older brother and give him a piece of her mind. Mai chuckled at this; it seemed this Nana girl was quite the personality. "Why _you_-"

"Tsutaro! Nene, Nana!" the three children turned around to see the approaching figure of what Mai could figure out as their father. Hidden behind him was the svelte figure of a woman in a kimono. "Come here, please."

The three children turned, smiles wreathed their faces when they saw their father and rushed forward to greet him, Nene leading the trio and wrapping her arms around her father's legs.

"Father!" Nene excitedly greeted. "You're back!"

"Father, Oniichan was being mean to Nene again!" Nana tattled on her older brother, smirking when the boy shot her a dirty glare.

"Tsutaro," their father mildly scolded the pouting boy. "What did I tell you about bullying your sisters? You should be taking care of them not making them cry. You should set a good example."

"Tch."

"Tsutaro."

"...Yes, Father."

Their father sighed but then brightened before he spoke again. "Anyway, this is a special day for us; I want to introduce you three to someone."

All three children leaned forward and the younger form of Sakurada Kaede came out from behind their father looking down at them cooly. Mai swallowed at the vibes of dislike the older woman was emitting as she looked down at the children.

"Children... meet Kaede," the older man introduced. "My future wife..."

Then Kaede smirked before hiding it by bowing to the children clinging to each other. "Nice to meet you; let's all get along..."

Mai pulled out of the vision and gasped like a person who had their head under water for a long time and blinked. The orb continued to float in front of her as though it wanted to tell her more but suddenly it left and sped away towards the forest towards the direction of the lake. She was about to go after it when her senses tingled with an amazing amount of dread. Mai turned back, her eyes darting towards another part of the house the complete opposite of the ones being occupied by most of the members of the mansion.

Her heart froze in terror at the sight of a mangled, grayish face and a furious set of deep red eyes staring right back up at her from behind a set of iron bars located at the far left end of the house. It looked like one of the drowned corpses they had encountered back with the Yoshimi family. The slow grin it suddenly gave her brought chills up and down her spine and made her blood run cold.

Mai floated there in the air; shocked and frozen and helplessly looking back at the monster that kept on grinning at her with pure malice until it looked away and slipped into the house. To Mai, it seemed like it was scurrying off into the main halls and her eyes widened when it came to the children's bedroom door. The young esper was relieved when she saw Bou-san's wards practically throw the thing off when it touched the wooden obstacle and heard it snarl. It was angry it couldn't get to the children. It started running wildly around; desperately; with enough stealth to make it unnoticeable. Mai felt her limbs go numb when she realized the creature was going for _L_.

Without a second thought she willed her spirit back into her body and snapped out of bed. Without even thinking about it, she hurried out of the room and to the base, thanking Kami their host had given them rooms so close to it. When she burst into the room, L looked up at her in surprise.

"Taniyama-san?" he asked, still crouched oddly in his chair in front of his monitors like she had seen him in her dream, a cookie between his teeth. "What are you doing he—"

"STAY BACK!" she screamed back at him as she stood between him and the doorway. She waited with her hands in position and her stance firm; she did not have to wait long. From the darkness out the doorway of their base came the shadow of the sinister being that had shot her frozen with the malice it had thrown her way. And it was headed for L. Its claws extended frighteningly and like an air blade it shot through the air straight for the young man's shocked face.

"L-SAN!" she called out even as her arm got in the way of the vicious talons. Mai then whistled and suddenly, the creature was thrown back a few feet or so, leaving her the opening she needed. "Naumaku sanmanda bazara dan kan… Naumaku sanmanda bazara dan kan… Naumaku sanmanda bazara dan kan… Naumaku sanmanda bazara dan kan… Naumaku sanmanda bazara dan _kan_!"

"WAAAHHH!"

But she ignored L's frightened scream and glared at the now furious creature in front of her even as she made the symbol of the nine cuts; her blood from the wound the monster inflicted splashing all over the wooden floor. "Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Sai, ZEN!"

The cuts were so strong it blew the creature back outside the room. She then heard a growl and then a scurrying sound before running footsteps followed and came closer. A few moments later revealed they came from Bou-san, John and Osamu.

"MAI!' the monk cried out as he came in, making a straight line for her slowly sinking form. "I felt my wards being disturbed, what happened?"

"Are you okay, Mai?" Osamu slid on his knees on her other side. Seeing the blood he immediately gritted his teeth and set out for the supply bags they had in the room for the medical kit. "Give me your arm, that looks deep!"

John didn't say anything but he stood protectively over her, his holy water in hand, alert to the possibility of another attack.

"I'm f-fine I'm just a little numb…" she gasped as she sank completely to her knees, her hand on her wound. "But that was close…!"

"How about you, L? L?" they all looked towards the detective who was currently sitting on the floor, a look of absolute terror on his face. His back was against the wall, his eyes wider than they had ever seen them and his mouth open in a silent scream. "L…? You okay…?"

"Ah… wah… ah…"

Mai's heart tore apart at the sight of him; speechless with fright and barely even able to move. She could feel his fear under her skin like a needle in the middle of her chest. For all his superior intellect, he was nothing more than a child now. Mai was too worn by the loss of her adrenaline to move just yet so she did the only thing she could at that point.

"It's alright," she whispered as she looked him straight in the eye, soothing him with the sheer force of her spirit. She could feel him trembling even from where she was sitting being tended by the monk and college student. "It's going to be alright."

His head jerkily turned towards her and stared at her face for a few moments; he stared at the blood freely flowing down her arm before turning back to her face. And then, bit by bit, he started to move towards her and crouched at her back. Then, seemingly giving in, he leaned his forehead against her back and his hands clung to the back of her blouse like a lifeline. His trembling became physically much more pronounced now but Mai felt no tears from him. His fear was so deep that it had no room for tears. She wasn't expecting for such a man to feel so much.

"I'm sorry..." he started whispering to her back hoarsely, uncaring of the stares he was receiving from Houshou and the others. "I'm... so sorry..."

"Mai?" she looked up to see Housho, John and Osamu's worried faces; shocked to the core at this display.

She struggled through a smile even as she continued to hold L close. "I think you should call Ayako and Masako down here, Bou-san; I don't think this is just a job for the police anymore."

"My God, what happened here?"

Everyone looked up to see the concerned face of Sakurada Nene in her sleeping robe looking in on them from outside the doorway. She paled when she saw Mai and the blood around her. "MAI! Oh Kami, what happened to you?"

"Nene-san..." Mai calmly asked on a shaky breath, ignoring the first aid Osamu was giving her. "Why didn't you tell us you had a twin sister?"

The men around her looked at Mai with wide, surprised eyes.

Nene gasped in shock and gaped, seemingly forgetting how to breathe for a moment before replying. "...How did you know...?"

Mai sighed as she looked down at L again, brushing his hair back before replying. "Why don't we sit down for a bit, Nene-san. I'll go make some tea."

/*****/

Review...? (though I know I'm not worthy... -_-;)


	7. Chapter 7

**Rosebud in Amber:** Thank you so much for keeping up with the story, I'm glad you are enjoying it. Yes, stay tuned to L and his adventures into the illogical! lol

**bbhelen3162: (**bows**) **thank you so much for your support and prayers; yes, it hasn't been easy but I'm getting there; you are an angel for waiting up for this story I am so grateful to you for thinking I am worth reviewing; I will always struggle to update.

**Yoruko Rhapsodos**: Thank you for reading! Here's another chapter!

**justbecause111**: (glomps!) Thank you so much for thinkng so and I am so happy you are enjoying the story! Thanks for all the AWESOME comments lol; I love the awesomeness of your reviews!

**Orihime-San**: I know right? Imagine GH without the suprnatural! It would totally suck! lol; And don't be afraid of going Doc Phil on me, it just shows you're an intelligent person who can interpret the psychology and the logic I put behind every character I write; this is the reason why I look forward to your reviews, you know? I am so glad I didn't disappoint you (MAJOR GLOMP!)

**YunaNeko**: Thank you so much! Here's another chapter, I hope you like it as well.

**pinchess07**: Gosh yours is one of the reviews that made me cry; Thanky you so much 100000000x and I am so happy you liked the story enough to quote it; and yes, L beats Naru in cuteness hands down! I'm just sorry I couldn't update sooner or on a Tuesday; I DO know what a drag Tuesdays are -_-; I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Seb20**: Thank you so much! I am so honored! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well; such as it is -_-;

**Moira Serpy-Griffy**: Thank you so much for thinking so! I love this pairing too much to drop it so have no fear; also, me updating this story takes so long because it was only meant to be a fall back piece designed to take my frustrations out on whenever I'm getting a block on my other story: Shade of Black; hav eno fear I will do everything I can to update more regularly.

**alice**: I will try so hard, sweetie, don't worry; I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Chaos086**: You think so? lol thanks so much for thinking so, I had always wondered how come there are so few people writing crossovers about these two anime; here, I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

**FictionFantasy VI**: Another person who's not pressuring me to update! And someone who shares my love for the L/Mai pairing! (GLOMP) THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU _DO_ UNDERSTAND MEEEEE! I hope you enjoy this next chapter as well! ^_~v

**Loveless Soul**: I enjoy hearing about people being made happy because of my stories, I hope I can keep up with you expectations; I promise to try and update more regularly lol

**Aki no Tsuki**: I thought I was not worthy because I can't seem to update regularly enough T-T; but since you guys are so awesome I will struggle to do so! Thank you for appreciating the details I dropped in, you are a considerate reviewer for pointing out such things other people would usually take for granted. In hope you enjoy this next chapter as well.

**AN:** I'm sorry for the wait; pretty busy right now and I haven't had a lot of time writing lately. And I am going to say sorry in advance for any spelling errors; I have a flu so my vision's kinda doubling at the moment; I'll edit as soon as I get better. I also made this chapter longer since there aren't enough exciting stuff in it. In any case...

Please Enjoy! ^_^v

**Chapter 7**

Hara Masako avoided her fellow celebrities as a rule.

It wasn't because she disliked any of them personally or any of the sort or that she was timid; it was just because she knew they thought she was strange and scary and yet fascinating. Like an exotic animal they liked to look at but dared not touch. To them she was just... strange.

Sure there were some exceptions to the rule who actually went out of their way to talk to her but to her they were all people who didn't believe in her in the first place or that they thought she was one big scam and treated her and her abilities as a great big joke retained by the network for her ability to gather the occultist viewers and make money for the producers. Luckily she didn't care either way; when her grandmother discovered her abilities she was taught to expect such reactions from other people outside her family. True it made her a beautiful outcast amongst her peers in the private all girls school she went to and sometimes she felt lonely as well; but she was trained and trained well and she was able to cope up with the loneliness... Until SPR came into her life. However she maintained her wariness towards other outside her tight knit circle of friends.

So her being approached by none other than the hottest upcoming pop idol Amane Misa with a big friendly grin on her face was nothing really strange to her. She would have treated the airheaded girl with aloof politeness and casually dismissed her except for the fact that Masako knew this woman was dangerous killer. The girl who was known as the Second Kira.

"Hellooo, Hara-chaaan!" Amane Misa waved over to her as she jogged lightly to her location; her assets bouncing all over the place and attracting way too much attention. Her manager; a man she knew as a police officer named Matsuda, trailed behind her like a love struck puppy.

Masako held her sleeve over her mouth as she politely nodded to the other girl from underneath black sooty lashes. "Hello, Amane-san."

"Aww you're just way too formal, it's not cute!" the bleached blond haired young woman whined at her jumping up and down like an excited child of three. "Call me Misa-misa like everyone else!"

Masako gave her a polite smile. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't do that. It would be terribly impolite of me."

"Mou, you're just no fun! It's a shame since you're so cute!" Misa pouted before her painted lips spread into a great wide grin again. "Ne, ne! I like you, Hara-chan, so would you like to be friends with me?"

Masako blinked at the other girl in surprise. Since working together she had noticed Amane Misa constantly waving at her from a distance and actually getting out of her way to speak to her. Masako wondered if... the girl felt a little lonely as well?

"I would be honored." Masako finally said, taking a mental note to tell L about this.

"Yay!" Misa shrieked in joy and grabbed a surprised Masako's hands in her own and started to shake them. "I know we're both busy right now but let's try to hang out sometimes, ne?"

Masako gracefully inclined her head once. "Of course, if it is not too much trouble."

"AWWW!" Misa suddenly hugged her making Masaki almost push the other girl off. "You're so cute, Hara-chan! Like a doll!"

Before Masako could comment on the common remark about her looks, Misa let go of her and started running off towards the hall Masako just came from. "Bai bai, Hara-chan! If you tell your manager to send my manager your number later I'll text you! And then if we start hanging out I'll introduce you to my boyfriend!"

Masako watched the girl go, Matsuda still following in her heels after bowing to her shyly.

"Hara-sama," her manager, bodyguard and chauffer Takagi called to her and was presenting to her her purple colored celphone which was ringing and showing off Bou-san's number on her caller ID. "A call for you."

Masako wasted no time taking the device and answering the call. "Hello, Bou-san? Is there something wrong?"

"Hey, Masako-chan, can you and Ayako come down here A.S.A.P.?" the monk's voice came out of the receiver.

His words struck a cord in Masako as an image of Mai's smiling face came to her mind. "Did something happen to Mai?"

"Yeah," Houshou replied with a sigh. "She's hooked another case for us and we need you guys here."

The medium's brows furrowed. "Are you still in Futami? I told you I am not intersted in taking part in a police investigation."

"It's more than just a police investigation now," Houshou's voice became somber. "Mai was attacked by a spirit."

Masako's violet eyes widened at that and her hold on her phone tightened. "Is she alright?"

"She was wounded quite a bit but she managed to protect L-erm... Deneuve-san; anyway, can you come?"

Masako looked to her chauffeur pleadingly but the tall, man shook his head sadly at her. Sighing in frustration she sadly answered the phone. "No, I'm sorry, I thought it as nothing special so I'm booked right now."

"It's alright but..." Houshou sighed again and Masako could practically see the sandy haired man run his fingers through his hair. "I guess there's no helping it."

Masako was worried. Without her there then Mai would surely use her perception and Astral projection to investigate the case. That would mean being held hostage by her visions again and when that happened... "Perhaps there is another way to exorcise that spirit before she gets the chance to Astral project?"

"We could try but that could take too long," Housho told her. "And a lot people had already died here, Masako; and I mean a _lot_. Painfully and brutally too."

Masako almost felt her knees give underneath her. "...I see."

"Anyway, I'll keep you updated; if things change then Ayako says she'll be down here by noon tomorrow, you can hitch a ride with her."

"Alright," the young medium managed to answer calmly. "Please stay safe."

"You too, bye."

Masako sighed as she handed her phone back to Takagi sadly.

"My apologies, Hara-sama," the tall man bowed to her in apology. "Would you like me to try and clear your schedule anyway?"

Masako thought for a moment before smiling up a little at the man. "It's fine; this is Mai we're talking about, after all. I can't help but worry about her but... if it's her, I know she'll be alright. Everyone is there with her, I know she'll be alright."

And she _did_ worry. Because she knew what Mai was going through as an individual with unusual abilities. Although Mai were both surrounded by a lot of people, when she starts to use her powers she would be alone. Especially now that Gene was no longer by her side.

/*****/

"I don't understand..." Nene sat on the couch and being served tea by Mai, still shooting the younger girl a disbelieving look. "H-how did you know about her...?"

Mai settled down beside the older woman and gave her a kind smile before explaining. "Well, Nene-san; I am what you might call someone who has Extra Sensory Perception; I have the ability to look into the past of souls given the right place and event through my dreams. Earlier, I dreamed about your sister."

Everyone listened as she narrated her dream and every word that fell loose from the teenage esper's lips made Nene tear up.

"Th-that was the summer... when everything changed..." she muttered in a choked voice when Mai finished. "Oh Kami I believe I still had my doubts when I came to you but this..."

Houshou listened to every single word and constantly gave Mai worried looks from his seat on the chair across from the sofa both women were occupying. He should have known something like this was bound to happen with Mai around, he really shouldn't be surprised anymore. These past two years Mai, although there no longer was an SPR she had constantly run into random spirits and had manaed to perform some really ridiculous exorcisms all on her own making him put his foot down and had her visit his father at Mt. Kouya for a while to get her some proper training. Ayako didn't like it but Masako and John thought it would be better if she knew how to better handle her growing powers than leave her open to danger because of them.

Inwardly he sighed as he kept his ear in mai's narration.

Mai was like a bright lightbulb, really. Ever since she met Gene in her dreams the outpour of her abilities just wouldn't stop anymore. It was like Gene's intervention had broken a dam ni her psyche that refused to close up even with Naru's eparture; he sometimes wondered if this was the reason why Naru left; if the young scientist went back to England and turned her down in hopes that she would be able to go back to being an ordinary young woman with a bright and normal future again.

Well if that was his reason then Houshou couldn't wait to see Naru again and gloat right in his face about how wrong he was. The brat deserved it. Because right now Mai was far from the ordinary little teenage she used to be.

As he watched Mai nodded and lay her hand gently over the woman's forearm. "Nene-san... will you tell us about your twin?"

As the older woman sought to collect herself enought to tell her tale, Houshou turned his eyes away in thought and they landed on L sitting in a chair behind the sofa right by Mai. His unblinking eyes seemed stuck on the young woman and he held an almost empty cup of peppermint tea Mai gave him to calm him down after his breakdown earlier. She forbade him to add in any more sugar than she had already put in much to the detective's displeasure. At first L met this scolding with more than a little bit of resentment... until Houshou noted how the detective must have felt the calming effects of the brew seep into his system. The monk smirked at that; he knew just what kind of magic Mai's tea had. Their sugar junkie of a boss had no chance in hell. Honestly, who would have thought that the L he had idolized and heard so much about was a big scaredy cat? Well then, to his credit, he guessed most people would not have been able to handle the sight of a corpse like demon with any amount of equanimity. Especially newbies. He remembered his first bout with the supernatural; a malicious little ghost boy who had a fetish for drowning other children in a family pond. It was a good thing he was soaked through the time his father found him because he would have never lived it down if the old man found out he had peed in his pants.

"It's been so long ago..." Sakurada-san finally began calmly and Houshou found himself turning back to their client to listen. "It never stopped hurting so I figured I should just forget about it all together and I never thought anyone would ask this of me since my brother died," Nene started off. L kept his eyes on her, sharp and ready to pick out any lies in her slightest body language. She took out a locket hidden in her clothes and opened it to show them a picture of identical girls on the right and a picture of their brother Tsutaro on the left. "Her name was Nana... She was older than me by eight minutes and I didn't mind it a bit since she always took care of me. She was the strong twin; I was the spoiled brat. We keep the same design of locket; it was a gift commissioned by our father when we turned twelve."

"What happened to her?" Houshou asked, straddling his chair. "Why isn't she around taking care of the children with you?"

"Because she's dead."

The monk blanched at the blunt answer. "Oh."

Everyone's interest was peaked at this confession. Mai reached out to gently rub circles around the older woman's back in silent sympathy, Nene responded to this with a grateful smile. L marveled at how such a slight gesture from Mai could arouse such a strong reaction from a complete stranger. It gave Nene the strength to continue with her tale.

"It was close to our fifteenth birthday back then, we were so happy because we were going to finally start high school soon but the day before our birthday celebration she was found in our mother's old armoire; hanging by her neck using an old scarf she was planning to wear to our party the next day. They said she committed suicide; I was the one who found her." Nene gave off a bitter laugh and buried her face in her hands with a dry sob. "Our father was so distraught his health started deterioratiing. I was thrown into a state of depression and stopped going to school. Tsutaro was the one who took care of us. He did that even though he was no more than a child himself. Nana had always been my older brother's favorite; I was daddy's little girl."

"I see..." John was looking at Mai who was listening intently to the client. Houshou could hear Osamu typing the client's words away into a laptop on a desk behind him. "It must have been terrible."

"It was," Nene smiled at the blond priest. "The discord in this house became even worse when my father married Kaede-san shortly after Nana's death. We were always fighting. The moment I graduated high school I decided to go to college in the United States far from here. It was the reason why I was away for both my father and Tsutaro's deaths. I couldn't accept the fact that they thought she killed herself."

"Why not?" Osamu asked politely, highly intrigued.

Nene looked him directly in the eye and the complete belief in them made Houshou almost back away. "Because she was the strongest person I know; she would never take her own life because... Ah but you wouldn't understand."

"Because she knew it was tied to your own... and she would never do anything to hurt you... right?"

Nene turned surprised eyes at Mai's words. "H-How do you know that?"

The sad smile on the high school esper's face made L blink and his breath stop. "You're twins aren't you? You're the other half of each other. Two hearts, two bodies, two minds... but each a half of one soul."

Houshou could feel her pain. Damn it, it was one of those moments when he really wished he could land a good one on Naru's prettty face. That expression did not belong on a face like Mai's. He scowled when he saw L still staring at her as though he had never seen such an expression on anybody's face before. It made the monk curious but he decided not to intervene on L's weird fetishes, for now. Just as long as Mai stayed unhurt.

The sandy blond bassist watched as tears welled up in Nene's face at Mai's words before she burst out and hugged Mai's middle. This took the girl aback for a moment before she softened and started to hug the woman back.

"The moment she died..." Nene said hoarsely when she managed to calm down. "It felt like someone ripped apart my soul; it hurt so much and I was so upset I couldn't sit still. The worst thing was we had a fight the night before and we weren't talking to each other for the first time in a long time and I was feeling miserable and then before I could say sorry she..."

No one said anything, leaving Mai to do what she needed to do since all the men in the room were at a loss on how to comfort a crying woman.

After a while Nene straightened and wiped her tears away with a tissue Osamu handed over to Mai then sought the Touo student's eyes. "Are you telling me my sister has something to do with the incidents around the house?"

"We're not sure yet," Osamu quickly responded with his enigmatic smile. "But our investigation needs to take another route now that we know someone related to you might be the reason why this is all happening. We are investigating the issue from another angle now."

"It can't be her," Nene looked to Mai pleadingly. "Please...! My sister is the kindest woman I had ever known; she would never hurt the children!"

"Sorry, Nene-san," Housho told her from his chair, it would be better not to give her any false hopes early. "But until we can prove that wrong I'm afraid we'll have to look further into the incidences in the house. We can't be sure if your sister is still the same if she's still around after all this time."

"What do you mean?"

"Spirits may appear benign in the early years of their deaths when they stay around here in the land of the living," Mai explained to her as gently as she could. "But if a soul remains on earth for too long, there's a chance they would change into evil spirits and become affected by the negativity of the world of the living; this is the reason why we have to exorcise or help them cross over."

"No..." Nene shook her head in denial.

Houshou understood this; nobody wanted to believe departed loved ones would ever be able to hurt them even in the afterlife.

"If she did commit suicide then it would be no surprise she couldn't cross over," Houshou nodded thoughtfully. "Suicide victims always pass away with a lot of regret."

Nene bit her lip before sighing and standing up from the sofa and bowing to them all. "I leave everything to you then... Please help us."

"We'll do everything we can." Osamu bowed back.

"Nene-san, why don't you rest? It has been a long night and I am sure you're tired," John stepped closer to her with a smile. "I'll take you to your room."

They all watched the drooping shoulders of the older woman as she exited the room with John escorting her. Before the exorcist stepped out of the door, he and Houshou exchanged a nod telling the monk that John would set up his own barrier over their client's room to keep her safe. Everyone fell silent until the door was closed.

Housho was the one to break it. "Well, I guess that's that." He turned to L with an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, L-san, but looks like we'll be taking charge of this investigation from this point on, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." L replied, still in his position. "I'll just sit back here and observe."

"Masako says she can't come; her schedule's been filled;" the blond bassist told them. But Ayako will be rushing out here tomorrow so she would probably pop in around noon or something."

"We should spread the cameras a little wider to cover the entire house, then," Mai said, her index finger thoughtfully tapping her chin. "Especially the east wing."

"That's where you saw the demon?" Houshou threw his arms over the couch as he looked at the young woman.

Mai nodded, hugging herself with her good arm and shivering. "It was horrifying; the malice I felt from it made me freeze in my tracks. It felt like a bundled up ball of hatred and resentment, Bou-san."

The monk's brows furrowed. "That sounds disturbing."

"It was..." Mai hesitated and the monk waited knowing she was about to allay her fears with him. "Bou-san... do you really think it was Nana-san...?"

"Depends, Jou-chan," he sighed, wincing at the forlorn look on her face. "But it could be she was the spirit orb who showed you that vision."

"I don't know, something's wrong," she sighed in frustration. "No matter how much my abilities grow, spirits could always be so vague."

"One thing we do know is that this thing you and L encountered is no laughing matter," Houshou said, his mind already running through a million miles per second. "It worried me even more that it can use kamaitachi."

"Sounds like it can't be anything else _but_ a demon, either," Osamu nodded thoughtfully making L look at the Touo student. "If it works just like the demon we encountered back in Suwa we'll be in trouble."

"You've encountered something like this before?" L asked the other young man in wide eyed interest.

"Yup," Osamu told him, grinning cheerfully as though telling him about a funny children's bedtime story. "It was the kind that pulled its victims through walls and cut off their necks so it can bathe in their blood."

L paled even worse that he already was and scurried over to Mai until he was crouching beside her.

Mai glared at Osamu. "Stop scaring him."

"But it's true!"

"Anyway, I think it would be safer if you and Osamu pair up with either of us to be sure you'll be safe," Houshou then said, eying up the two younger men. "That way, we'll be able to protect you better."

"_Dibs on Mai_!" L and Osamu cried out at the same time.

Both young men looked at each other with raised brows and blinked.

Mai and Houshou sweat dropped.

"Seriously?" the monk's left eye twitched.

"What, it's not something you can blame us for, Bou-san," Osamu declared as he adjusted his glasses with a wide eyed look of innocence that practically screamed with mischief. "I mean, Mai _is_ prettier than you. Don't worry, though, I still like older guys."

Houshou looked up at the younger man wryly. "I'm touched by your devotion, Shounen; really, I am."

"Hm, interesting," L suddenly piped up solemnly as he sat observing the entire thing from his seat. "Really, Takigawa-san, I didn't know you were into boys."

The Touo student and monk froze like petrified rocks. Mai blinked wide eyes in her seat.

"Not that there's something wrong about that," L, oblivious to the trauma he was creating, looked at each of the men in turn curiously. "So? Who's the bottom?"

Osamu began with a nervous twitch and spluttered. "H-hey, wait a minute, I think there's a slight misunderstanding-"

"Pf-WHAT? YOU GOT IT WRONG!" Houshou shot to his feet like a released spring. "I am NOT _sleeping_ with him!"

"And here I thought Takigawa and Matsuzaki-sensei had some sort of mutual attraction with each other." L continued, ignoring their protests.

His words made Housho shoot to his feet, a blush lighting up his face like a Christmas tree. "W-what makes you say that?"

L just continued to look up at the taller man with a wide eyed, innocent stare. "Isn't that the logical conclusion you come to when you see a man always looking to get one woman's attention through bickering? It's a reverse psychology thing, isn't it?"

"WHAT? I would NEVER!"

The potential blood bath was interrupted by the sudden sound of laughter and the three men stopped to stare at Mai who was doubled over on the sofa trying to hold it in.

"I'm sorry...!" she gasped but broke off again as another spate of laughter attacked her. "Really, I am! It's just that... Ahahahahaha! I _knew_ someone would misunderstand you guys someday! Ahahahahhahaha!"

L watched in fascination as both his male employees' faces softened at the sight and the detective marvelled at the ability of such a slight emotion from the girl influence the mood around her.

"Mai, maybe you should get some sleep, you're tired and you'll need to rest; we can talk about plans in the morning," Osamu said, beginning to usher her out of the room, exchanging a nod with Housho as he did so. "Come on, we'll fetch John along the way."

But they were all taken aback when L suddenly plastered himself to Mai's arm, covering her away from Osamu's potential touch almost protectively.

"_I'll_ take her to her room." he announced before standing in a slouch and beginning to pull her along. "I'll see you both tomorrow."

Mai blinked and looked back at a gaping Housho and Osamu as L dragged her away from the room, shrugging her shoulders in a helpless gesture as she was eventually pulled out of sight.

A few moments of silence convered the entire room at their exit before Osamu broke it, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. "Should I folow them?"

The sandy blond man frowned then shrugged it off. "I guess he'll be fine as long as he's with Mai."

Osamu scratched the back of his neck for a bit before speaking again. "Hey, Bou-san, do you think L likes Mai?"

"I'm not even sure," Houshou replied, just as confused as he was. "For me he looks like a kid clinging to his mother. Has he been like that at school too?"

"No," Osamu shook his head. "In fact, from what I've observed of him, he's got a bad case of aphephobia and mysophobia. To be honest, I was kinda surprised when he allows Mai to touch him; he's never let anyone do that before, or at least not that I've seen him allow anybody that privelege."

The monk crossed his arms over his chest and frowned thoughtfully as he thought about this. "Well I guess it's okay as long as he doesn't hurt Mai; besides there's something about that guy that's kinda... pitiable; like it would make me feel like a right bastard if I deprived him of Jouchan."

"I agree," Osamu nodded at that. "I don't know why but he seems vulnerable somehow; despite the sarcastic little pokes and the feeling like he's laughing at us because he thinks we're stupid."

"Let's just leave it for now," Houshou sighed before shooting the monitors a wry look. "You want to stay here and look out for the monitors?"

"Do I look like Lin-san to you?"

"Ehehehe, just asking, come on, let's find John and get some sleep after I'm done putting up wards around the other rooms; tomorrow's going to be a long day."

/*****/

L kept on pulling at Mai's hand even as he entered her room with her in tow, vaguely noting how soft her skin was in his rougher hand.

Being forced by Watari to train in various forms of martial combat and weapons as well as trained for tennis, he had the callouses to prove them that had thickened his palms despite the fact that he had hardly had to do anything physical at all. A very male part of him appreciated the girl's softness. A fact he had only become conscious about when they finally reached her room and noticed he had yet to let go of her hand.

He dropped it like a hot potato.

It was one of her mysteries that she always felt so clean. It weirded him out that he would welcome someone else's touch than his own. He needed to find out how she did that.

"What's wrong, L-san?" Mai asked him softly and the baggy eyed detective looked up to see the plain concern in her eyes; apparently she hadn't noticed how he managed to space out at the softness of her skin. "Are you still scared? It's alright, I don't feel it near; it can't touch us here either since Bou-san set up wards in my room before I went to sleep."

L scowled at that. Somehow it displeased him that she thought he was so weak and that he needed to be protected. Then again the fact that he _needed_ that protection because he _was_ afraid was enough logic to not put him into a tantrum.

"Don't be ashamed," her firm voice caused him to lift his eyes and look at her and blinked when he didn't see a trace of mockery or laughter in them. Her sincerity shone through her cinnamon colored eyes with a brightness that might have blinded him if they were any more confident. "No one in your position could have handled it any better; believe me, your reaction was perfectly natural."

"But you-"

"I've been doing this for a living, remember? I've got seniority on you," she flashed him a bright smile that made L think he was going to have an asthma attack. Was it possible to forget how to breathe? "I might not look like it but I was pretty scared back there too. When I saw that thing as I was astral projecting, it scared me so much I couldn't move; and I didn't even have a physical body back then either so that speaks volumes about how dangerous that thing was. So don't feel bad.

"Fear is perfectly natural," she told him confidently, with eyes too old for her age. "Fear is what makes us careful and helps us live to see another day. There's nothing to be afraid about wanting to live another day as long as you don't hurt anybody else in process; at least taht's my opinion about it."

He considered her and her words for a moment. Her acceptance of his weakness was extraordinarily ordinary in a way that brought comfort to him; it was different from the staggering disappointment he had experienced with Watari when he refused to perform for the old man and exceeded his expectations. With this girl there was no pressure, no drive, not motivation, no reason to excel. It was everything he sought and learned to hate as L. And yet he couldn't resist responding to her in a vulnerable manner. It helped that she didn't reject his vulnerability; instead she accepted it; welcomed it with open arms.

Another to add to her mystery.

"...I'm not good with ghosts..." he admitted after a while.

She smiled at him warmly and patted his hand in a motherly gesture. "I know."

"Taniyama-san?"

"Mai."

"Eh?"

Her smile seemed even warmer now than before. "I'd like to think that we're friends, L-san, so why don't you call me Mai?"

He hesitated, rocking on the balls of his feet for a little while as he thought about the pros and cons of her words.

On the con side it was never good to be involved with your test subjects. On the pro side it would be easier to gain her trust and get her to let him observe her a lot more closely.

He looked at her again; he guessed it wasn't so bad to get involved with the girl; it wasn't as though he was going to care about her, after all. There was nothing special about her except this affinity with the supernatural and as soon as he found out this mystery then he would just leave her and that would be the end of it. He had nothing to lose.

"...Mai."

If anything, her eyes glowed when he called her name. "Yes, L-san?"

"About what happened earlier…"

Mai blinked up at him. "What about it?"

"Thank you."

Mai seemed taken aback by this; clearly she was not used to being thanked. "Y-you're welcome."

L cocked his head to the side like curious parrot as he observed her gestures closely. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" she flailed around, a blush running across her face she was trying to hide desperately with her hands.

L found this odd. Was she not used to being thanked at all?

"A-anyway," she continued, still flustered as she turned around and began to walk towards her bed. "You should go and get some rest; it's already late and we have a lot to do tomorrow."

The thought of going back to the base or anywhere without her somehow filled L with a feeling of terror and acute uncertainty; it was the main reason he spoke out in unison with Osamu when Houshou announced they needed to be with one of them at all times so they could be protected. After what happened... it just didn't feel safe in this house anymore when he was not beside her; he knew this was not logical but he couldn't help himself.

He desperately thought of a reason to stay. "How did you... what was it you did when you fought that thing; I want to know."

"Ah," Mai turned back towards him in surprise then nodded in understanding, thinking he was still trying to investigate the case. "I tried to exorcise it."

L face faulted. "Say what?"

"Exorcisms," she indulged him in a matter of fact tone. "When things like those attack, psychics generally try to make them go away and protect ourselves and others using exorcisms. The first chant I used earlier was called the Fudou Myouo; Bou-san taught me that; Ayako taught me the Nine cuts, the second thing I used that pushed that demon away."

"But the demon was already pushed away once even before you started chanting, what do you call that?" L asked his eyes wide and truly fascinated at what she was saying.

He was never a big believer of religion; he was no believer of God; except for the purely rationality and logic behind them and its functions in a person's life that may be involved in a case so information like these went over his head quite easily. Hearing it said and reading about them in theory was one thing... seeing it in action was another.

Mai had to giggle at the face he was making. "Those were my shiki. It was something Bou-san's father taught me when he sent me up to Mt. Kouya to try and control how I astral project; the shiki came a bit later because Bou-san's dad noticed how these little demons kept following me around all the time so he taught me how to make contracts with them."

"Contracts?"

"Uh huh," Mai nodded merrily, spinning around and flopping down on her bed, grabbing the nearest pillow and hugging it to herself like a stuffed animal. "Shiki are demons employed by a caster; normally they could be used readily by onmyouji but since Bou-san's dad told me I had an affinity with them anyway that I should try it out despite not being able to use onmyoudo; they've been with me ever since."

L followed her and crouched in front of the young woman; thumb against his lower lip as he gazed at her like a child listening to a wonderful bedtime story. "So they're like... those shinigami who controls the Death Note."

"No, demons aren't like that; they're not gods," Mai shook her head at him. "Sure they're special, but they exist in a whole different plane. They are more connected with the living than the afterlife. You could say they live in a place in between life and death."

L's eyes were practically shining ebony pebbles in his pale face. "Can I see them?"

"Well..." he watched her as she thought for a bit, obviously a bit troubled. "Nobody's asked to see them before and I've always assumed they didn't want to be seen so..." she pursed her lips and held out her index finger as though waiting for a bird to land on it. "How about it, guys? Do any of you want to meet L-san?"

L's eyes widened when he felt something cold brush against his arm and eeped in alarm, clutching onto Mai's leg as he looked around her room warily for any signs of ghosts. "W-what was that?"

Mai sweat dropped. "That was one of my shiki greeting you; figures you won't be able to see him."

L turned wide eyes at her; half frightened, half wondering. "They're not going to hurt me?"

"Of course not."

"But I can't see them?"

Mai winced. "Not without any strong psychic abilities, you can't; not even Bou-san or the others are able to see their phyical form. If anything, I think the only person who would be able to see them would be Lin-san and Bou-san's dad."

L pouted at her. "I don't like being with things I can't see."

Mai sweat dropped. "Are you serious?"

"I want to see them." he said with renewed determination.

He was a person who liked things to be tangible and explainable; unwrapping the mystery that was Taniyama Mai was enough of a chore he did _not_ want to include her shiki into the mix of things on his 'To Investigate List'.

Mai's brows knotted and tried to think of a way to divert the man's attention but one look at his burning, unblinking black eyes and she knew there was no way he was going to let her rest about this. The young esper scrunched up her nose in thought until finally, an idea came to her.

"Alright," she finally said, turning to the English detective resignedly. "I'll introduce you to them but you're going to have to sleep in this room tonight."

L blinked in surprise at the announcement. "Sleep? Me?"

Mai nodded. "Yes."

"...I don't sleep."

Mai smirked at that. "Then you should find a way to do it if you want to meet my shiki."

L frowned. "That's cheating."

"No it's not," Mai rolled her eyes at him. "Are you forgetting that I can astral project? It means I can walk on the spirit plane and dreams are easily accessible through there. I can visit you in your dream and show them to you because that would be the only time when you would be able to touch and see anything spiritual."

L blinked but glanced at her warily as though trying to decide whether or not to believe her before chewing on on his thumbnail in agitation. "I suppose I could take sleeping pills..."

"No you can't, it needs to be a natural sleep, besides," she looked outside her window and into the dark night with an expression that could not be mistaken for anything other than anxiety. "With this kind of spirit on the loose, we need to be alert. So maybe we should do this another time, okay, L-san?"

"But I don't sleep."

"You slept really well back in the van on my lap." she pointed out in confusion.

L blinked at that, looked up at the ceiling and scratched the back of his head. "I really am not sure how that happened either."

Mai blinked down at him from her bed. "Do you have insomnia?"

"I believe that is the relative term for such a malady, yes." he deadpanned.

Mai scratched her chin thoughtfully before sighing. "Well, there's not much I can do about that; I'm okay now so go back to your room and I'll sleep."

L felt the same panic and fear he felt earlier when she started to turn away from him; when he thought about being anywhere else but beside her. So instead of moving away he started drawing circles on the wooden floor. "...I don't want to."

Mai's eyebrows rose at that. "Eh?"

L hesitated for a bit before grabbing the pillow she was hugging and embracing it himself. "I can't just leave you alone after what happened! What if you went out of your body again and nobody's there to wake you up? Nu-uh, I'm staying right here."

_"What?_ You can't stay in a girl's room!"

"I'm the boss here and what I say is law," L puffed out his chest as much as he could in his crouching position. "And that's _final!_ You can't make me change my mind!"

Mai slapped a palm on her forehead wondering how she got into these kinds of messes before she sat back on her bed in seiza and posed in a meditating position. "Fine; do what you want. But don't blame me if Bou-san finds you here and strings you up in a tree."

L grinned in triumph, just watching her; he then found a chair near the wall; got up and placed it at the foot of Mai's bed. He then climbed onto it and crouched down, staring at the silent figure there. "What are you doing?"

"I'm meditating." She replied in a quiet voice, almost as though she were in a trance.

"What for?" L continued to pry with interest.

She dropped her stance and instead of the irritation L was expecting like he would normally see in other people he kept on peppering with questions, he saw a wealth of patience there that he had barely even known existed. "Walking through the astral plane is pretty dangerous considering what else I can encounter while I'm there; so I'm giving my spirit body some rest and the best way to do that is to meditate so I can control where it's going and keep it here inside me."

L thought about this for a moment before speaking again. "You are not planning on leaving your body here tonight?"

"I'm too tired to do that, besides, we still need to investigate tomorrow; I'd rather keep my strength up on both ends until I absolutely need it."

L thought about this and had to agree; it was wise of her to keep her strength solid. "I see."

"That said, why don't you try to get some sleep, at least?"

"I can't."

He heard her give off a frustrated sigh, assumed her position and went back to meditating. After a few more minutes, the English detective managed to hear the soft sound of her breathing and noted the relaxed sight of her form.

Sleep.

He wondered now how he would be able to do that. Was it just a coincidence that he had managed to sleep in her arms because of her calming scent?

He took a deep breath and caught a whiff of lavender in the air. The room smelled of her but he did not feel sleepy at all although it managed to strangely calm him. On the contrary he wanted to just sit there and watch her sleep and he wondered, deep inside, just what she was dreaming of.

It was the first time in his life he regretted that he had difficulty sleeping.

/*****/

"Dammit this is impossible!"

Mai winced as Housho flopped down on the sofa.

They had been interviewing the staff once again for further clues about the mansion's history and the people who used to live there; looking for any clues to the haunting like leads to curses or grudges or even insistent lost spirits who might have grown engrossed with the previous owners of the house.

Needless to say that they have come up with nothing new.

"I'm back~!"

Everyone in the base looked towards the door where the bespectacled researcher came in from holding up a rather thick manila envelope in his hand late that morning and singing his arrival. His usual smile firmly planted on his face. John waved at them from behind the younger man.

"Hey, guys, just in time; so what did you get?" Mai greeted them sweetly as she gathered the microphones and cameras to her alongside Houshou who already had a mile long round of cable hanging over his shoulder.

L, in the meantime, was ensconced on the sofa drinking a cup of Mai's tea using his thumb and pinky to gently pick up the cup. As usual he was in his odd crouching position as though trying to isolate himself from the world in general.

Osamu and John had set out very early in the morning to acquire a new set of records on the house that dated back during the time of Sakurada Nene's childhood, the Touo student swearing up and down that he was going to knock down the library and police archives door if he had to. Mai had managed to wake up a little after nine o'clock, feeling tired as she always did whenever she had one of her dreams. The maids had informed them of their departure so Mai, Houshou and L ate breakfast in the base and started gathering the equipment they needed to set up surveillance cameras around the house.

"I think you better take a look." Osamu told them, setting the manila envelope on the table they used during the interviews and started pulling out the papers in them.

The others surrounded the pile and took a peek of the contents. Mai gasped when she saw the heading of one paper which looked like a photocopy of the local newspaper. The bold black letters rose up screaming at her the way only front page news can do.

**SAKURADA HEIRESS COMMITS SUICIDE**

There was a black and white picture underneath it showing the form of the girl hanging by a looped, purple scarf tied around her neck while the other end was tied round the pole used for hangers in a large armoire. The armoire was so big it was actually tall enough to fit her plus the half foot her feet couldn't touch. Her hands were at her sides, her eyes white and unseeing and her mouth in a silent parody of a scream.

Mai gasped and covered her mouth with a hand as though trying to contain her horror. It was a horrifying sight to see especially since she remembered how vibrant and alive this girl was in her vision of the past. The large contrast left her shaking.

"Kami..." Houshou whispered quietly as picked up the photocopy and read through the article. "Poor girl."

John nodded. "It is very sad, indeed; however, there's another curiosity in the article."

"Eh?"

"Why don't you read page 2?" Osamu told the monk grimly.

Houshou turned to the next page and ran his eyes through the second part of the article. "The hell...?"

"What? What is it?" Mai asked, walking around the table to Houshou's side to take a look at the article from over his shoulder.

The mink handed her the article to save her the trouble, knowing it was impossible for her to accomplish the feat without climbing on a chair. "It seems that Sakurada Kaede was going on about Nana being killed by our client."

"What?" Mai grabbed the paper and read it through, her eyes widening at the statement left behind by the twins' stepmother. "Impossible! Sibling rivalry?"

"Tsk," Houshou clucked, his mouth twisting into a displeased moue. "Something smells rotten."

John and Osamu both nodded their heads in agreement.

"Should we schedule another interview?" Osamu asked.

"We should," Houshou agreed. "Why don't you stay behind here in the base while we set up the cameras so you can start on that interview?"

"Sounds like a plan." Osamu grinned up at him.

"Okay," John started gathering their equipment. "Why don't you pair up with me, L-san? L-san?"

Everyone turned but saw the baggy eyed detective looking closely at the photograph he had suddenly swiped from Mai's hold. He was staring at it with scary intensity while slouching beside their resident esper, the pad of his thumb against his lips. "This is no suicide."

Every occupant in the base stiffened as they stared at the English detective in surprise, speechless at the sudden deduction.

L merely looked up at all of them and threw the photocopy of the news article back on the table for all of them to see.

"This is a murder."

/*****/

Please Review? ^-^;


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